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Love the idea of encrypting and owning my own data. But here's my question. My encrypted data needs to be unencrypted and read by third parties eventually. Wha

Love the idea of encrypting and owning my own data. But here's my question. My encrypted data needs to be unencrypted and read by third parties eventually. What's to stop those third parties from just copying and saving my data, then selling it later to a data broker, who then goes out and resells it on an open or black market? Can someone clarify use cases for these encrypted services? Otherwise, it seems a lot like when RIAA tried to stop users from distributing MP3s. Once the cat is outta the bag, can't really put it back in. Zeroes and ones are trivial to copy.

jmprspret 4y ago
I think this maybe a use-case for "Homomorphic" encryption. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption
- charlie0 4y ago
  Nice! Hadn't heard of this before. It seems like this is the type of encryption that would be used when a third party needs to verify your data, but you wouldn't want to share it unencrypted.
CameronNemo 4y ago
Perhaps you can limit the exposure by only providing aggregated data to trusted third parties.
saurik 4y ago
I don't understand the question. 1) Why does my data have to be unencrypted by third parties eventually? Most of my data is for me. 2) When I actively decide to give people data, why do we propose they are so untrustworthy as to sell it to a data broker? I am very confident none of my friends are actively selling the data I give them to anyone. 3) Even if one of them did, they would only have access to the data they were given, not all of my data I have ever given to everyone else.
- karpierz 4y ago
  2) this assumes there aren't any third parties on your friend's machine. You're trusting not only your friend, but likely Apple/Microsoft, Chrome/Firefox, and any browser extensions they might be running, which would definitely become more aggressive and pervasive if this scheme became common practice.

jmprspret 4y ago

I think this maybe a use-case for "Homomorphic" encryption. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption

charlie0 4y ago
Nice! Hadn't heard of this before. It seems like this is the type of encryption that would be used when a third party needs to verify your data, but you wouldn't want to share it unencrypted.

CameronNemo 4y ago

Perhaps you can limit the exposure by only providing aggregated data to trusted third parties.

saurik 4y ago

I don't understand the question. 1) Why does my data have to be unencrypted by third parties eventually? Most of my data is for me. 2) When I actively decide to give people data, why do we propose they are so untrustworthy as to sell it to a data broker? I am very confident none of my friends are actively selling the data I give them to anyone. 3) Even if one of them did, they would only have access to the data they were given, not all of my data I have ever given to everyone else.

karpierz 4y ago
2) this assumes there aren't any third parties on your friend's machine. You're trusting not only your friend, but likely Apple/Microsoft, Chrome/Firefox, and any browser extensions they might be running, which would definitely become more aggressive and pervasive if this scheme became common practice.