The logic behind manipulation through our personal data is simple. Internet giants collect all kinds of personal information about us—not only from our online behavior, but also from our behavior in the physical world, since all devices and systems are networked: mobile phones, navigation systems, ATMs, cash registers, and so on. The same applies to a large portion of applications, whose modes of operation we cannot truly know—how they “communicate” with us, according to what logic, and where and what personal data they transmit.

All of this vast and comprehensive information about us and our lives is analyzed and profiled by algorithms. As a result, not only a detailed psychological profile is created, but also a complete picture of our life situation, lifestyle, current problems, and more. On this basis, probabilistic forecasts can be made about the development of the individual under various circumstances. This means that someone knows more about us than we know about ourselves. And that someone is methodical, tireless, intelligent, and equipped with enormous know-how and statistical knowledge about everything. That “someone,” of course, consists of various agencies and corporations that use global databases and self-learning algorithms in order to achieve full control over society and the individual.

We all know that information is power. Knowing our weak points is undoubtedly power. If someone’s “Achilles’ heel” is known, there is no need for brute force in order to harm them—one precise strike is enough, and the “butterfly effect” is set in motion. This can be achieved through a casual phrase, a sign, a half-truth, an omission—or through personalized online recommendations “just for you,” search results, targeted advertising, and so on. Internet monopolists possess numerous channels through which they can deliver carefully selected information to us, and there is absolutely no guarantee that this information is provided without ulterior motives, manipulation, suggestion, deception, or emotional exploitation.

Today, IT corporations possess information about individual people, human psychology and nature as a whole, social processes and trends, the economy, and much more—far exceeding that of any government. This gives them an enormous advantage in imposing their interests, expanding their power, creating and destroying businesses, enforcing social control, blackmailing governments, and slowly, step by step, imposing their ideology and social order.

How could we change all this? Can we hope that adequate governmental regulations will be adopted to protect us from the omnipresence of IT corporations that have penetrated every aspect of our lives and deeply classified the mechanisms of their power over us? At least in the near future, this does not seem particularly likely.

However, if we cannot (for now) escape the lens of the corporate microscope; if we cannot force corporations to abandon “Big Data,” nor to make it public, then we might attempt to create our own global database—one that is publicly accessible and available to everyone. In this way, we would gradually deprive corporations of their advantage: knowing things about us that we ourselves do not know.

To this end, applications could be created that collect certain data about our activities, in the same way Google, Microsoft, and others do. This information would, of course, be anonymous; its type and scope would be determined by the individual and collected entirely with their consent. In this way, data on the behavior of millions—even tens of millions—of individuals could be gathered quickly. Such data would be a gold mine not only for scientists, but also for ordinary people, who, by accessing statistical information about mass behavior, would gain deeper insight into themselves as well. The information would enable a wide range of social and psychological studies, all publicly accessible, thus giving impetus to the development and democratization of societies.

This idea may sound disturbing to many, but let us remember that we are already being constantly monitored, and that the data corporations possess about us is fully identifying. Compared to what is already a fact, anonymous data collection would not expose individual privacy to additional risk—especially when the individual alone determines what kind of information they choose to share.

From a technical standpoint, the solution is relatively easy to implement and could be developed as an open-source initiative. In this way, we would deprive corporations of the enormous advantage through which they attempt to control us—information.