Own your identity (2011)
marco.org
marco.org
I want to be able to pay a single lump sum to have a "digital safe deposit" of sorts. A physically secured file server with guaranteed data integrity over the length of my life that is encrypted in a way which guarantees I am the only person that ever has direct access. Instead of releasing all of your photos, videos, messaging, etc. to random third party companies that will come and go, you could build a safe repository of your entire life's data output. You could then allow API access to this data to any service you wished, under as strict of terms as you wish. These services would compete on the basis of security and customer service, rather than advertising eyeballs.
We sort of have this model with things like Facebook, but the incentives are corrupt because Facebook makes money by spreading your data, rather than making money by protecting your data. It's going to take a rethink of the entire system. It almost seems like there's a need for a government service to handle this.
The Web was designed to be decentralized, and yet out of laziness we are contributing to it becoming a collection of several huge data silos.
This way, I can just keep directing e-mails to another address.
Same goes for websites; I can just link to mywebsite.com/cv or whatever rather than other service that may erect registration walls or go down.
Odds are my website links will work for longer than theirs.
Again, I deal in relatives, not absolutes, so I'm content with a solution that's comparably better than completely delegating to third parties.
What makes one solution "comparably better" than the other? Is it the fact that ICANN is legally a non profit org, compared to Google?
Some platforms have been quite good at longevity as well, but it is unlikely they are going to beat the domain registration system (on which they also depend), and you don't have the option of just moving your content somewhere else and keep the URLs/reference alive. Yes, domains are not 100% stable either (they can be lost to legal action, or fraud/criminal activity), but at least the same level of risk exist for content on other services.
There are interesting attempts at alternatives, but they don't have the reach yet.
If your domain is a .com or a .net, you are also relying on VeriSign. If your domain is in a different TLD, then you are relying on that registry. Beyond that, most of the DNS roots are operated by organizations other than ICANN.
I think that the long history of the Internet and the Domain Name System lends it additional credibility over that of web services operated by companies like Google.
This is also a bug. Especially with third-party corporations that have their own motives, and are prone to treat estates differently than they did the person.
If one wants content to be kept online after their passing, then this needs to be setup ahead of time through an explicit arrangement with the host, not just terms in a will that an executor will be powerless to carry out.