Hiding from big data

摘要

As the chorus of Twisted Sister's 1984 anti-authority hit "We're Not Gonna Take It" faded, Aral Balkan got ready to launch his latest project from the main stage at Handheld, a small technology-design conference held in Cardiff, Wales, last November. The entrepreneur's big idea? A phone that flies in the face of a consumer-technology industry transfixed by big data and how to make money from it. Users of Mr Balkan's phone will have extensive control over any data it collects. However, those data will not be "monetised". So far, what Mr Balkan calls his Indie Phone is just an idea and one that is largely dependent on a crowdfunding campaign aiming to raise the several millions of pounds needed to put the device into production.