data ownership

Bilingual

Authorize, Don't Authenticate
2 months ago
- The author argues for an 'authorize, don't authenticate' model where users grant applications access to their own personal databases rather than logging into centralized apps.
- Applications should store minimal data outside the user's database, allowing users to revoke access at any time and maintain control over their data.
- Creating personal databases should be as simple as creating a document, with tools like ayb making it easy for non-technical users.
- Separating applications from databases offers user choice in data hosting and reduces reliance on single application providers, though trust is transferred to database hosts.
- Collaborative and social data require more complex models, but the author envisions decentralized aggregation without centralized controllers.
- The author's projects (ayb, Todos) demonstrate practical implementation using OAuth2 and static frontends, enabling user data agency.
Open Social — overreacted
2 months ago
- Open source has become dominant in shared infrastructure, similar to the current potential of open social.
- The AT Protocol (atproto) from Bluesky aims to give users ownership of their data, like personal websites did, but with social aggregation features.
- In closed social apps, user data is trapped in a company's database, making it difficult to leave without losing social connections and content.
- Open social allows users to own their handle via domain names and store data in personal repositories on the web, enabling portability.
- User data from different apps can coexist in the same repository, allowing apps to piggyback on each other's data without APIs.
- Aggregation works via relays that stream events from all repositories, allowing apps to build local caches for fast queries.
- Cryptographic signing ensures data integrity and trust in the network.
- The open social model blurs app boundaries, enabling remixing, forking, and reuse of data, reducing lock-in and cold-start problems.
Slack is extorting us with a $195k/yr bill increase
2 months ago
- Slack demanded an immediate $50,000 payment and a $200,000 annual increase from the nonprofit Hack Club, with less than a week's notice, threatening to deactivate their workspace and delete all message history.
- The sudden demand forced Hack Club staff and volunteers to urgently migrate systems and rebuild integrations, causing major disruption and opportunity cost.
- After the post about this situation went viral on Hacker News and Twitter/X, Slack's CEO contacted Hack Club and offered to resolve the issue.
- Hack Club is moving to Mattermost to own their data, and advises others, especially small businesses, to do the same to avoid similar risks.
Satya Nadella has issued a warning to companies using AI
2 months ago
- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warns that companies using proprietary AI models pay twice: with money and by handing over valuable proprietary business data.
- Nadella argues that enterprises are unknowingly training AI models with sensitive business knowledge, which competitors could never buy, potentially turning model makers into competitors.
- He criticizes the hypocrisy of AI labs freely using public data for training while restricting others from studying or 'distilling' their models to create cheaper alternatives.
- Nadella suggests companies retain ownership of their data and build proprietary learning environments in the cloud, along with 'orchestration layers' to switch between AI models easily.
- Enterprises are increasingly shifting to on-premise open source AI models for cost savings, control, and to avoid data leakage, a trend supported by companies like Solo.io, Vercel, and OpenRouter.

data ownership

Authorize, Don't Authenticate

Open Social — overreacted

Slack is extorting us with a $195k/yr bill increase

Satya Nadella has issued a warning to companies using AI