TV has, and continues to have, a major influence on all of us. But as we move further into the 21st century, TV is being replaced by streaming services and platforms such as YouTube, to not only entertain us, but to inform us. But what started out as a dating site in a garage, has fast turned into a multi million dollar platform. 

In this latest episode of Decentralize Me, we take a deep dive into the world of online video. 

“In October of 2006, after a battle between Yahoo and Google, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion, netting the co-founders $400 million each. Fast forward to today, and the worldwide revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020 for YouTube was $6.85 billion.”

But if YouTube is a free video hosting platform, how did Google make this much money? By selling you and your data. But don’t content creators get paid by YouTube? Well yes, but they have to have a minimum of 4000 hours of watch time in 12 months, and at least 1000 subscribers, otherwise all ad revenue goes directly to Google.

And then there’s the issue of free speech censorship. Should tech companies be allowed to decide when and where to set boundaries around what content is shown? 

So what alternatives are there? Well, the decentralized video sharing platform we like best is Odysee, which is based on the Library blockchain - a public blockchain that provides a single shared index of published content as well as content discovery and payment.

“One of the great benefits as a user is that you don't get force fed advertisements from a big multinational and your private data is not being used to market products and services to you.”

To find out more about decentralized video sharing platforms, download and listen to Decentralized Me today.

On today’s podcast:

• How YouTube makes money for Google
• Data mining and the social credit system
• Why a centralized system limits free speech
• Odysee - the decentralized content sharing platform

Links:

• www.decentralizedme.fm
• Presearch
• Odysee

In previous episodes we discussed how powerful social media companies had become due to the copious amounts of data they mined. In this latest episode of Decentralize Me, we’re delving into the realm of messaging apps

Communication apps such as Messenger, Telegram and WhatsApp provide us with a convenient way to keep in touch with anyone, wherever they are in the world. 

But this freedom of communication has to come at a cost. And what if you knew that people could be listening in or reading your messages, as well as your database, even though the messages themselves were sent encrypted, end to end?

“Whenever you sign up for these apps, you have to accept their terms and conditions. And if you're like me, I've never read these documents. And it is this trusting attitude of just accepting that has led us to give up our digital rights.”

So what can we do to still communicate freely, yet retain control of our data?

Sense Chat is a decentralised message system that allows you to disconnect from the data hungry apps, while still connecting securely to friends and family.  

“This is the first system I've seen that has a peer to peer verification system where you vouch for people. This alone is a great idea.”

To find out more about Sense, encryption, metadata (and how the CIA used metadata to kill people), and how the likes of messenger and WhatsApp, collect all this metadata, share it and sell it, download and listen to this latest episode of Decentralize Me.

On today’s podcast:

• The issue of communication apps
• The value of metadata
• Sense Chat
• Asymmetric end to end encryption
• Insecurity of VOIP

Links:

• http://www.sense.chat/
• www.decentralizeme.fm

Welcome back to Decentralize Me, the podcast where we show you how to take back control of your digital identity and stay intentional. 

In this episode, we’re going to explore social media, the power of its centralized system and show you an alternative social media platform, one where you can take back control of your social media, where you retain control of your data. 

Previously, we’ve talked about how in the early 2000s we moved to web 2.0 and the dynamic web. This allowed users to respond to platforms and as such, social media was born. 

Fast forward to today, and social media companies are some of the largest and most profitable on the planet. How? Because they mine personal information that is so freely given to them. 

“Data gathering is the number one objective for most social media platforms. On top of this, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has researched and discovered that Facebook has tracker pixels, or cookie sharing codes on 30% plus of the top 10,000 websites.”

The financial reward of data mining? 

“Facebook last year, their gross profit was $69 billion, and Twitter made $2.35 billion.”

If you’re looking to use alternate social media sites, our recommendations are ones that are decentralized, have tokens that reward participants and are available on mobile devices. 

“The social media platform that best meets this criteria at the present time is the Minds platform.”

To find out more about Minds, an alt-tech blockchain-based social network, how you can take back control of your social media and retain control of your data, download and listen to this latest episode. 

On today’s podcast:

• TikTok’s privacy policy
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Freedom of speech
• Alternate social media sites

Links:

• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Minds
• https://www.decentralizeme.fm