A recent video (above) was published by the French National Digital Council about the big Internet platforms. It explains the issues around the trust that consumers and citizens should put into Internet platforms, these companies sometimes called GAFAs (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, but it should include Microsoft, Spotify, AirBnb, Uber, Youtube, etc.)
Many questions are raised about these companies: How come that they have these amazing valuations while many of their services are free? What do they do with our personal data? How are they involved with mass surveillance?
Cozy, the personal Cloud, is also a platform, but a very different platform, created with the idea that personal data should be protected just like users' privacy. In order to achieve this means inventing a new paradigm. Here is how Cozy and the big Internet platforms fundamentally differ:
- Cozy does not monetize your data. Cozy does not do data mining, unlike many other platforms, namely Google and Facebook;
- Cozy is Free and Open Source Software, which means that its source code is public and can be audited. One knows what the software does, so it can be trusted. It's the opposite of the black box approach being offered by big platforms;
- Cozy is not centralized, and you're not depending on a single vendor. As the source code is public, you can download it and decide where you want your personal cloud to be hosted: by a vendor you trust or at home on your own server.
The video brilliantly tells that the deal we get from platforms is "Give us your data and leave the rest to us". Cozy's approach is to leave you with your data while empowering you with tools to do more with them, in your digital home!
Cozy really is very different paradigm from the established platforms: Cozy is about empowerment with personal data, an approach which is meant to replace the existing platforms with a better and more respectful solution!
