Personal information is being shared on social media, but this data ends up under control of these platforms. As we see an increased concern for privacy rights, it’s time for a new era of technologies that keep you in control of your data access. One such technology is called Solid.
With this technology, you can put your data on personal online datastores (PODs), that allow you to control who has access to which parts of your personal information.
Belgium is pioneering in this technology where it is studied and already being used.
Different programs and applications are being developed that allow more data access control and personal data security.
One such company that keeps up with the time, is Konsolidate.
Six weeks ago, I started an internship. I explicitly chose Konsolidate because they apply this new technology.
Solid integrates new standards into the web we alreadyhave. It extends the capabilities of the web and fills in fundamental gaps.
How does this work?
With the help of Inrupt's SDK, you can apply the Solid specifications and thus read, write personal data on these decentralised pods, as well as control the access.
For example: instead of posting a picture of yourself on a social networking site, you upload it on your solid pod. Then you add the people or applications who you wish can see it, including your favourite social media app. However, you stay in control with whom you share it. However, sharing it with current social media? Doesn't those companies have enough data bout you already?
Konsolidate tries to convince people that this is the way forward, and helps with that. Which is one of the reasons why I selected Konsolidate to do my intern.
For six weeks I created several programs and worked with a team of developers on a bigger project. This team is building an application for association memberships (Vereniging app). At the beginning of my internship I didn't know anything about Solid. Because I was very interested in learning and using this technology, I managed to grasp the basics of the technology and show my progress to the team.
One of the programs I created is a Blog-application. I developed this program using Solid, tailwind, css, Inrupt’s SDK and React. I started learning this technology from day one. I developed this program at the beginning of my internship because I needed to show the team that I knew enough about and able to apply the technology. I managed to surprise them with my speed of learning the Solid stack.
Konsolidate has a very friendly atmosphere and the team could support me in any situation. I was able to successfully complete my internship at Konsolidate.
I would like to express my gratitude to the team for working together on both projects and giving me this experience.
