[ALAC] What do users want?

[Evan Leibovitch]

On Tue, 6 Nov 2018 at 18:26, Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond <ocl at gih.com> wrote:


> The 2018 CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust findings
> show that over half of internet users surveyed around the world are more
> concerned about their online privacy than they were a year ago, reflecting
> growing concern around the world about online privacy and the power of
> social media platforms.
>

Interesting disjoint between what people say they want and what they
actually choose.

Nobody is forcing social media down people's throat, it's done voluntarily.
Countless privacy-conscious platforms arise (here's the latest
<https://mewe.com/> of which I've been made aware) but then wither from
neglect.

Concern just never seems to change to action, it's like an addiction. It
will take some catastrophic event to change this (and by catastrophic I
don't mean data breach or some new revelation of how much GAFA knows ...
something bigger).


> The GAFAs have managed to reach commercial success, but they are currently
> suffering from allegedly not being able to address Privacy and Trust. It is
> fascinating to see them fumble their way through these topics, in contrast
> with their well developed commercial plans spanning their first two decades
> of existence.
>

It is entertaining, but not useful. So long as GAFAs manage to avoid state
regulation, they don't care how poorly they look in public. In fact, I'm
sure that an image of earnest-but-incompetent right now serves them better
than malicious-and-competent.


> Let's hope that ICANN does not fall into this trap too.
>

In my experience, any sentiment wrt ICANN that begins "let's hope" is
usually a lost cause.

- Evan
PS: To me, the simple answer to the question "what do users want?" is "ask
them". For a long time now I've believed that one of ALAC's potential
strengths, to which a chunk of its budget should be redirected, would be
research and polling. Not cheap to be sure, but at least a reasonably
definitive way to be able to advocate a public-interest PoV without
accusations of just guessing what that PoV is.
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