Tim urges internet users to demand that online giants such as Google and Facebook give up data to each individual user, in the hope that the user is able to use this data as a personalised service.

Berners-Lee argues that users do not understand the value of the personal data held about them by these web services. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Berners-Lee says "My computer has a great understanding of my state of fitness, of the things I'm eating, of the places I'm at. My phone understands from being in my pocket how much exercise I've been getting and how many stairs I've been walking up and so on.

"One of the issues of social networking silos is that they have the data and I don't … There are no programmes that I can run on my computer which allow me to use all the data in each of the social networking systems that I use plus all the data in my calendar plus in my running map site, plus the data in my little fitness gadget and so on to really provide an excellent support to me."

Despite defending the open internet in the past, Tim has announced that Google now offer users immediate access to all data it holds specifically on the user, whilst Facebook offerS to send users their data within three months of requesting it.

Tim hopes that the opportunities are endless with the use of such rich data, with our computer able to provide personalised services such as recommending you books to read by looking at your taste, as well as measuring your mood.

See the full article by the Guardian here

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN