Whether you know it or not, like it or not, or even believe it or not, most of what you do is tracked and documented.

• Credit Card Purchases
• Online Payments (Paypal, Venmo, CashApp)
• Rewards Programs (Big Box, Retail, Grocery)
• Internet Searches
• Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
• Tech Companies (Apple, Amazon, eBay, Google)
• Phones and Phone Apps

What you look at, search for, download, share, and buy is all put into someone’s database. However, this collection of your personal information has never been centralized, all-inclusive, permanent, transparent, and definitively identifiable until now.

How Tracking Currently Works

Let’s say I visit Facebook. While there, my browser picks up a third-party cookie or tracking pixel (tiny snippets of trackable code). I leave Facebook and go look for new dumbbells. The tracking code comes with me and allows Facebook to monitor where I go and what I look at. Later in the day, when I return to Facebook, I see a lot of ads for exercise equipment. Tracked!

eBay? Twitter? Amazon? YouTube? Google? Same scenario. Essentially, any modern site is going to track you in some way. Even if it’s only to see what pages you visit and how you interact while on their site.

Or instead, I go to Target and buy those dumbbells and spend $67.89. I use my Target Circle card and pay with my Visa. Because I used Target Circle, Target now has a record of what I purchased. My credit card company can see that I spent money at Target. More data points in their respective databases.

Our smartphones are worse. Apps can collect your shopping habits, internet searches, and, in some cases, even health information.

An Imperfect Solution

There has been push back, from both governments and individuals, concerning these various tracking practices. Big Tech companies have announced changes to address these concerns.

In June 2021, Google announced it would phase out third-party cookies in late 2023, with new tracking technology to replace them. –TechTarget

The ‘Facebook Pixel’ will be gone in 2022. – LinkedIn

Apple releases iPhone anti-tracking feature. – The Hill

No more third-party cookies? No more tracking pixels? No more app tracking? Sounds good… Right?

Unfortunately, information about you is extremely valuable. So, there are already new tracking methods to replace the ones being “given up.” Both proprietary tracking solution (like Google’s Topics API, and Facebook’s CAPI). And more open, standardized solutions known as Universal IDs.

A Universal ID is a single identifier that recognizes the user in the digital marketing ecosystem and allows the information associated with the user to be passed onto approved partners in the supply chain. – Forbes

Now when I search for my dumbbells, my browsing and eventual purchase can be tagged to a Universal ID. This ID allows the entire process, from searching to purchase, to be traceable and attributable to me across all my devices.

However, both the older and newer tracking leave the information about you segmented. All the data still exists in different databases. Each one having only a partial picture. Companies sell your data to one another, creating a more detailed image, but it is still not complete.

Enter The Blockchain

You have probably heard the term Blockchain. Blockchains are the technology behind Bitcoin and NFTs.

Blockchains are basically a network of separately-owned computers with a shared digital ledger. Each computer has a copy of this ledger, so no single computer or organization can own the blockchain or the information in it.

These ledgers hold a chronological, unchangeable, ever-growing, readily available record of everything entered into them.

Governments, Financial Institutions, and most of the Top 100 Businesses are embracing blockchain technology.

China has made blockchain technology a strategic priority. – Techsprouts

California governor issues executive order on crypto as state embraces blockchain technology. – CNBC

Google’s Cloud Unit Creates New Web 3.0 Unit To Provide Support For Blockchain Developers. – Outlook India

Blockchain’s ability to be open, immutable, verifiable, and ownerless, has given rise to a movement toward a Decentralized Identity, also known as Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI).

Self-sovereign identity (SSI) is a term used to describe the digital movement that recognizes an individual should own and control their identity. – Sovrin.org

Self-sovereign identities are tied to an app called a digital wallet.

In decentralized identity, consumers use an app, referred to as a “wallet,” that stores their credentials and personal information. – Forbes

Proponents of self-sovereign identities hold that such a system will keep your information under your control. All your personal information and credentials will be in your wallet on the blockchain. Only you have they keys that allow access to the information. This would leave it outside the control of any single company (Facebook, Google) or entity (Government). So, tracking should be a thing of the past.

Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are digital monies that exist on the blockchain. The most prominent at the moment are Bitcoin, and Ether. These currencies are created, and exist, on the blockchain.

Cryptocurrencies are very-quickly being adopted as a legitimate means of exchange on a global scale. Governments, businesses, and financial institutions are all climbing on the crypto band wagon.

Biden is planning a new digital currency. – The Hill

Emirates Airline to Accept Bitcoin Payments – Blockworks

Fidelity Investments will be the first major retirement-plan provider to allow bitcoin in its 401(k) plans. – The Wall Street Journal

These digital currencies are on their way to becoming not only a legitimate means of payment, but a primary and sole means of payment.

A new cryptocurrency-related bill will allow payments in cryptocurrencies. – Coin Telegraph

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have become more popular since they allow users to bypass financial institutions that might block payments to Ukraine. – CNBC

And because cryptocurrencies exist on the blockchain, every movement is recorded and traceable.

Law enforcement agents were able to follow the stolen Bitcoin (BTC) — estimated to be around $4 billion in today’s value — through the blockchain – Coin Telegraph

Imagine a financial system that’s not just public by default, but can’t ever be made private, and nothing can ever be removed or deleted. That’s how crypto works. – Wired

NFTs

NFT stands for non-fungible token. If you have heard of NFTs, it is probably in relation to uber-expensive digital artworks like those of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. But NFTs do not have to be digital artworks or even digital anything.

Both cryptocurrencies and NFTs are examples of tokens existing on the blockchain. Tokens can be cryptocurrency or digital art, but they can also represent practically anything else. Digital, physical, or even perishable goods can all be tokenized. For example, StockX is attaching tokens to collectable sneakers allowing them to be “tracked on-chain.” As the shoes are sold/traded the blockchain keeps track of the transactions and ownership.

Once a token appears on the blockchain, in whatever form that token takes, every subsequent transaction involving that token is permanent, traceable, and verifiable. Token trackability has made blockchain technology very appealing for keeping tabs on the distribution of goods and services worldwide.

The Blockchain Is Already Transforming Supply Chain Management.
Every participant in the chain has their own unique digital signature, which is used to “sign” tokens moving through the chain. Every phase of a given transaction is recorded in the transfers between stakeholders, providing a built-in audit trail that can’t be tampered with… – Forbes

Putting It All Together

Let’s go back to my dumbbells. Now, in a blockchain world, a token was assigned to them the moment they were scheduled to be made. This token follows them as they pass through the various phases of manufacturing, shipping, and distribution. Until finally, they were stocked onto the shelves at Target. Every step along the way was logged onto the blockchain.

Now when I purchase them, I use my cryptocurrency. The transaction is then logged onto the blockchain and the purchase is attributed to my digital wallet.

All this information used to exist in separate unconnected databases. Now it is all unified onto the blockchain. The picture is complete; no segmentation. My wallet now holds a permanent digital record of what I bought, what I spent, and where I spent it.

This is a simplified overview. I haven’t covered how there are different blockchains, some public, some private. Or how technology, known as bridges, allows the various blockchains to interact. I haven’t covered tokenization, which is a process designed to make sure only the owner of the information and recipient can see the information being shared. But the point remains that the effort to escape tracking is moving us into a system that can make tracking much more complete. The push for a decentralized identity is CENTRALIZING our information. It will be interconnected, all-inclusive, immutable, traceable, and verifiable. And it will all be accessible from a single point of contact… Your wallet.

Blockchain Everything

Oh, and about that wallet. Your “wallet” that “stores” your information? It is NOT a wallet as you understand one to be. It does not contain anything. It doesn’t exist as an object that you can put things into. It is only a 256bit alphanumeric string. It is an address on the blockchain. An identifier where all things associated with you will be attributed. An address that all your transactions and history point to. Your wallet, your cryptocurrency, your self-sovereign ID, record and ownership of your digital and physical purchases, all exist IN the blockchain. ONLY in the blockchain.

… data and information is (sic) stored in the fabric of the internet itself. – Infoworld

So access to the blockchain will be required for literally everything.

And it isn’t just your ID, your money, and your purchases that will be associated with your wallet. Social media is embracing blockchain…

Blockchain technology is giving birth to a new wave of social networks that could be bigger and even better. – Diuto Coin News

As is the healthcare industry…

Blockchain technology could revolutionize the way that health data is stored and transmitted. – Investopedia

And, since there will be a single point of reference for everything about you, governments, businesses, employers, healthcare providers, insurers, and practically any other entity could require you to surrender information they consider pertinent at any given time.

Did you get a little extra money from your garage sale? Did your friends repay you for lunch? Your government may want an explanation of your windfall.

Prospective employers could require you to surrender your social media history. Which is now permanent and unalterable.

Credit card and mortgage companies could require not only your credit score (which will also be gleaned from the blockchain), but your actual spending history and habits.

“That could never happen”, you say? The global handling of Covid-19 has shown us that both governments and businesses are very willing to require you to offer-up private personal information, and play by their rules, in order to be allowed to participate. It has shown us that no matter how many charters, laws, or methods are in place to protect against such an encroachment, they only hold until something else is judged to be of greater importance. And now, if the system itself – money, services, purchases, healthcare, etc. – exists entirely on the blockchain, the apprehensive could be barred from participation on a much greater scale.

There are structures being built on the blockchain today. They have names like “self-sovereign”, “decentralized”, and “autonomous”. But I see a system more subjugated, centralized, dependent, and authority-based. A system that could easily serve as the all-encompassing tool used to abuse power at an unprecedented level.