I really don't get how this will work with the apps in your example. I mean if you access Facebook for example via your wallet you still need to register and provide your account details/data, they can then track your usage and browsing habits / interest via that app and then /market to you accordingly, or pass on that detail to 3rd parties...
I'm probably being thick so please educate me. What problem are you solving here..?
You're not being thick at all! They are good questions. We have detailed explanations in the Gray Paper and other sources which I will post some of below, but the problem is that a third party controls your entire digital and daily world. We want to put control of all of that back into your hands. This is not easy, but a lot of what is required to accomplish it is already in place. We need to move that to the next step. A more detailed explanation of those steps are below:
The problem:
The world economy is built on institutions that hold clients’ assets centrally: banks, telecoms, insurance companies, brokers, drug companies, governments, and more. Every year, hackers steal more than $400 billion and about 1 trillion records from data centers. Most CIOs believe we are losing the war on cybercrime, even as we rely on them for more important data like DNA, prescriptions, life logs, travel & driving history, criminal records, algo-trading, credit scores, shopping, browsing, reputation, etc.
Our data is getting more and more concentrated in the hands of a few large institutions. The buyers of big data love getting as much as they can from a single vendor, so they can predict and monetize our behavior. Companies like Facebook, Microsoft, ATT, LinkedIn, Experian, and Visa all exist to monetize their users’ data.
This is the problem the Pillar project will address. We want to give people a better, safer digital experience. We have two main objectives:
Replace accounts with atomic ownership. We all have dozens of accounts. With accounts, you log in and all your valuable data is trapped inside the app or the service. This presents huge concentration risk. It’s easier to get a divorce than to change banks or stock brokers. By switching from accounts to wallets, each person owns his/her own assets and can switch between vendors freely.
Replace apps with services. Apps on our phones are miniature desktop apps. Many of us have dozens of logins for apps that don’t talk to each other. We believe that the personal data locker will replace iOS and Android to become the operating system for all your devices.
