The End of Data Exploitation? How Tim Berners-Lee Plans to Save the Web

[Herald Economy reporter Son Mi-jung] Smartphones now recommend news about your recent interests every morning, almost as if they are monitoring your life. Social networks map users’ preferences and lock people into an endless scroll. In the online era, personal data is the most rapidly shared and repurposed resource.

In his book Tim Berners‑Lee, This Is for Everyone, Berners‑Lee revisits the World Wide Web’s founding philosophy as a corrective to the “attention economy,” in which a handful of companies hoard data and exploit users’ attention.

Berners‑Lee conceived the web in 1989 while working at CERN in Switzerland as a way to link information scattered across different networks. By combining hypertext with the internet, he opened up a new platform. In 1993 he released it to the world without patents or conditions. “As the web grew, I realized it couldn’t belong to any single person,” he recalled. “For the web to succeed, it had to be free.”

He hoped the web’s connective power would usher in an era of creativity and collaboration. The early, decentralized web seemed to deliver on that promise. It sometimes acted as a catalyst for democracy and liberation, as during the Arab Spring. “Those early days were good because anyone could build a website, and most traffic flowed to personal sites,” he said.

But as the web expanded, his fears materialized. Today’s seemingly harmless “cookies” track users’ every move, and algorithms are engineered to maximize clicks and time on site. Under a big-tech–centered structure, personal information has become a commodity that opens advertisers’ wallets. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, which involved the unauthorized use of data from 87 million people, showed how the web can be weaponized against democracy.

Berners‑Lee positions himself as a designer seeking to repair the web’s warped ecosystem and to guide the coming era of artificial intelligence onto a healthier path. He believes the phrase he displayed at the 2012 London Olympics—“This is for everyone”—still resonates and can be revived.

At the center of his argument is data sovereignty. He argues that reinventing how we store and use personal data is essential to rescuing the web and improving digital life. Systems that allow card transactions, medical records, location data, and online activity to be used outside an individual’s control must be fundamentally rethought. “We must support people so they can strengthen themselves through their digital footprints,” he says.

That concern led to Solid, a system that keeps personal data in individual repositories. Under Solid, distributed personal data is stored securely and integrated according to each owner’s terms; companies and services must obtain permission to access it. Berners‑Lee describes Solid’s core goals as freeing users from algorithmic manipulation, enabling open new capabilities, and converting digital footprints into sustainable value.

He does not portray technology itself as inherently evil. In the case of social media, he locates the problem in algorithmic design, not in the tools. Citing Australia’s ban on social media use for people under 16, he argues that design and use matter more than blunt prohibitions.

His stance on AI follows the same logic. He recognizes AI’s usefulness but warns of issues such as training-data copyright and risks like deepfakes. He calls for global cooperation and governance to manage AI, insisting we must create systems that operate safely under human oversight even if systems more intelligent than us emerge.

Berners‑Lee says now is a moment for a reset. By linking trustworthy data stores to AI, we can move beyond an era of data exploitation. “We still have time to build machines that serve humans rather than subjugate them,” he says, “and we still have time to use technology to connect people and protect our rights.”

Tim Berners‑Lee, This Is for Everyone / Tim Berners‑Lee; translated by Yoon Shin‑young / Saenggakui Himn