Glassdoor's Loss of a Lawsuit is Exactly Why Identities Must be Decentralized. That’s Not All Though!
Back in July this year, Glassdoor lost a lawsuit and was ordered to reveal the identities of anonymous users who left unfavourable reviews, so that a company could sue its former employees. While there are no specific details of what exactly transpired between the company and its employees, Glassdoor’s loss of the case set a bad precedent.
This means that Glassdoor and other organizations like it can be ordered to reveal your identity information to parties intent on harming you. That being said, we have to appreciate that there might be another side to these developments. The employees could have actually maliciously defamed their former company or revealed sensitive information after signing NDAs. If that was the case, the company had every right to ensure its former employees are held accountable, just as much as the employees have a right to privacy and anonymity.
We can all agree that no single centralized entity should be allowed to collect and hold people’s identity information. That information should be securely stored in a space that is totally under the user’s control.
What happens when users have anonymity? Do they get to just say anything on platforms like Glassdoor? While it is important for people to write reviews and share their experiences, they must be accountable for what they say. If the reviews are untruthful, defamatory, abusive, or in breach of NDAs, the writers have to be held accountable.
The other question is, how will relying parties verify that a user is who they claim to be? In this case, Glassdoor should not be holding personally identifying information of its users. How do they verify that the people who are using their platform are who they say they are though?
That’s where duly constituted public authority (DCPA) is needed. Public authority, like that of a municipal council, is excised by the participants. The main role of the DCPA is to attest to the user’s identity claims so that relying parties do not have to demand for personally identifying information.
One such DCPA is the city of Osmio. Check https://www.osmio.ch/
Governance by the city of Osmio is the answer to the ills of centralized authority and databases. The City of Osmio is open for participation for all its members. You also don’t need billions of dollars to become a member of the City of Osmio. You become a member of the city of Osmio by enrolling and getting your identity attested to by a real human being. The city of Osmio, at its headquarters in Geneva, does not keep any records of members’ identity information. Your information stays in a space that is fully under your control.
The License Plate Credential
The City of Osmio issues the License Plate Credential. The license plate credential bridges the gap between anonymity and accountability. As the name suggests, it borrows the same concept used by the car license plate model.
While on public roadways each car has a license plate on it, and it keeps the owner of the car accountable. The license plate is visible to everyone else on the roadways but it does not reveal the identity of the owner of the car. If the owner of the car needs to be held accountable for any traffic offence
In the physical world, anyone could masquerade as a police officer, call the DMV, and request for someone’s identity. The license plate credential does not suffer that shortcoming. The City of Osmio does not store any identity information. Even if thugs were to storm its headquarters in Geneva with guns blazing, there would be no identity information for them to steal.
Governance is an integral part of ensuring there’s accountability. Decentralization, by itself, is not enough. Decentralization plus governance will ensure that you not only have privacy and anonymity but also get accountability from others you encounter online.