Jaron Lanier Fixes the Internet
In this short New York Times Opinion video from September 2019, Jaron Lanier lays out his 'data dignity' proposal in plain terms: he argues personal data generated through everyday online activity — clicks, posts, translations — is collected and monetized by companies without payment to the people who created it, an arrangement he links to an unfair, unaccountable digital economy. He proposes people should be able to earn money from the use of their own data, reframing data as a form of labor rather than a free byproduct of using the internet. The video accompanied a longer written piece on the same proposal. TechKids Foundation includes it as a concise, widely distributed explanation of the policy idea Lanier develops at greater length in his books and essays.
"Jaron Lanier Fixes the Internet." New York Times Opinion, YouTube, 30 Sept. 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np5ri-KktNs
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