Data Privacy Issues

In recent times there has been a lot of issues with companies misusing consumers data and abusing the faith they have in these large companies.



The most publicised example I can think of is the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. This is when Cambridge Analytica (big data company) worked with Facebook to collect personal information on over 87 million Facebook users, without requesting permission.

Companies sold data to Cambridge Analytica, CA then sold on the data they had collected to politicians. US Senator Ted Cruz is one of the highest profile figures to be involved in this scandal. He purchased data from CA to find out information about voters that might help with his failed 2016 presidential campaign.

Another example of a big data breach is the WannaCry Ransomware attacks that happened in May 2017. Hackers used a cryptoworm to attack PC users running Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was a devastating attack and it affected more than 200,000 computers in over 150 countries, they used the cryptoworm to encrypt users data and then charged a ransom in bitcoin to allow users to regain access to private data. They managed to collect approximately $130,000 in ransoms but the expected cost to affected users is estimated at hundreds of millions to billions of dollars.

There are still reports in the news that pop up on a weekly basis about companies that have data breaches. Some examples of recent data breaches in the UK and across the world are Butlins, TicketMaster, Reddit and Dixons Carphone.

More companies and individuals are now aware of data privacy issues than ever before but many still do not take the proper precautions to protect themselves from breaches and hacks.

COVA's Project

COVA is a decentralised, privacy-orientated blockchain platform and protocol. The COVA team hopes to create a new internet with smart data that cannot be abused and exposed like it has been in recent years.

As businesses start taking the steps to become more digitised and the prominence of cloud-computing and remote servers continues to grow, we need to look into how the internet can be improved and how we can reduce the risks that our data faces online by introducing smart data.

The approach that Covalent will take is to use hardware and software. The hardware incentivises nodes which will provide COVA with computing power to power an optimized solution for both privacy and proof of computation. The software approach is a policy specification language (PSL) define and enforce policies through code.

In the end, this combined effort of COVA's hardware and software will provide a safer environment for all internet participants. COVA itself is the reward mechanism for miners to produce blocks and verify transactions. Users will make payments and deposits on the network to stake against malicious behaviour.

COVA Use Cases

As COVA looks to improve our data security on the internet the team has listed some examples and use cases on their GitHub of how their project could help users in their daily online activities.

One example is that credit card numbers that are used once for a one-time charge are erased from the server after the payment is completed. This prevents fraudsters and hackers from logging in to someones online shopping account stealing their data and using their card to make payments.

Another good example is that shoppers mobile GPS data cannot be used by retail companies and other data to create customer profiles without permission. This is an unfair and unjust way of manipulating data to try and get a shopper to purchase products from a company and make a profit. This would be looked down on not very socially responsible activities by the company and COVA could help eradicate this.

The COVA Private TestNet

Covalent.ai (COVA) is now inviting developers to sign up to access the COVA private testnet, this is a private demo into how COVA will work and it is only available to a select number of developers that match all the entry requirements.

Some of the requirements include prior experience working with blockchain technology, examples of projects the developer has worked with or is currently working on. Ideas of what the developers want to use the COVA platform to build any additional information that they think might support their application.

If you think you match the requirements and should be considered entry to the COVA testnet, then submit your application using this Google Form that can also be found on COVA's website: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUdxQMpRl4GPfie4BboIlbqr5WdLVQ7noR2vXaTkxZSEhJLQ/viewform

COVA links: