Our data, our property...

The data we produce everyday, can turn out to be much more valuable than we imagine on our hyper connected world. Data is at the core of who we are, and could be used in our favor or against us.

Everything we do on daily basis, generates data that defines us in some way or another. In way, data can be seen as a way that could be used as a lens
through which others can build an impression of who we are.

It shows who we are, what motivates us to act a certain way, what are our philias and phobias. When put in context, that data can be used to reveal things that otherwise we wouldn't share. That's why is of upmost importance to protect it, since it can be used in ways that we don't intend to or are against our interests.

We should be able to decide what data we share, with who, and for what purposes. So it goes with who the data we shared can be forwarded to third parties, and for what purpose.

Even though our data is not something tangible, it should be considered as private property and treated as such. It has to be our right to choose to who we share data, what data we share and for what purpose. Any use of our data without our consent has to be prevented, and it's misused punished.

It should be a given that our data should be dealt with privately, only shared with third parties with our permission. Even how that data is shared should be in a way that we feel comfortable with, and for uses that we agree with.

At the end of the day, that data is an integral part of our identity. Because of this, it should be treated with utmost confidentiality.

A era comes to a close...

The first week of 2017, and Yahoo! decline seems to finally coming to it's end. Verizon is closing Yahoo as we know it, transforming it into an investment company called Altaba.

Yahoo! was acquired by Verizon last year, and it kind of makes sense for Verizon to make such a move. While in the 90's and some fo the 00's Yahoo was a force to be recon with the Internet, it has become rather irrelevant now.

People has moved on to other places, like Google, Facebook, or Twitter. Even the way people interact with the Internet has changed drastically, with many using a smartphone as their main, if not only, way to access it. We even use TV's and tablets to access some of the content on the Internet.

While Yahoo will become Altaba, it does mark an end of an era for some of us who have been around for a while. My second e-mail account was a Yahoo! one, which became my primary one since I didn't wanted to keep using my hotmail one.

I've mixed feeling about Yahoo's demise, since I've some fond memories of my experience using it's services. Yet, I've moved on to other services that better suit my need, like Gmail for my e-mail.

So, it seems time to bid farewell to Yahoo! and move to other things.