Web3 and its impact on Privacy and Personal Data Management
Moe, Marcus Bremseth (2022)
2022
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2022053113483
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2022053113483
Tiivistelmä
Through the World Wide Web’s (WWW) lifetime it has gone through a few revolutions which are often referred to as eras. The most prominent ones have been coined Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Web3 is an emerging concept believed by many to be the next era of the WWW coined Web 3.0. This thesis aims to create an overview of what Web3 is and how it works, while focusing on its impact on privacy and personal data management. It will only consider the technical implementation of current Web3 solutions.
This thesis has completed a content analysis of documentation behind various Decentral-ized Cloud Storage (DCS) solutions and a case study of interactions with a simple social media application in a Web3 environment. Cloud storage and social media application are some common use cases for the WWW today.
The results of these analyses indicate that privacy will be minimally impacted by the cur-rent implementation of Web3. This is because identification of users is currently possible and difficult to prevent according to this research. Personal data management is impacted by changing the way data is stored in the cloud. Users are given more control over their data by running cloud storage on a decentralized network, hence removing the need for a centralized servers hosting user data. Additionally, aspects like file splitting, encryption and permissions are leveraged to improve security, availability, access control, and more to the users. Furthermore, users will have one central location for their personal data on the blockchain, called a wallet, from which personal data might be shared with several services trusted by the user.
Web3 is still in early stages of its development which leaves it with various limitations in its current implementation. Yet, it encourages new ways of thinking about the WWW and aims to solve many of the issues in the WWW we have today. Further research and development will hopefulle be able to address the various issues and create a Web3 feasible for implementation across the world.
This thesis has completed a content analysis of documentation behind various Decentral-ized Cloud Storage (DCS) solutions and a case study of interactions with a simple social media application in a Web3 environment. Cloud storage and social media application are some common use cases for the WWW today.
The results of these analyses indicate that privacy will be minimally impacted by the cur-rent implementation of Web3. This is because identification of users is currently possible and difficult to prevent according to this research. Personal data management is impacted by changing the way data is stored in the cloud. Users are given more control over their data by running cloud storage on a decentralized network, hence removing the need for a centralized servers hosting user data. Additionally, aspects like file splitting, encryption and permissions are leveraged to improve security, availability, access control, and more to the users. Furthermore, users will have one central location for their personal data on the blockchain, called a wallet, from which personal data might be shared with several services trusted by the user.
Web3 is still in early stages of its development which leaves it with various limitations in its current implementation. Yet, it encourages new ways of thinking about the WWW and aims to solve many of the issues in the WWW we have today. Further research and development will hopefulle be able to address the various issues and create a Web3 feasible for implementation across the world.