EU fines Facebook 1.3 Billion over transferring user information to the US. Regular firms suffer data hacks/breaches everyday in addition out outright selling user info. Do we really want web3 where personal and financial info are held together on the sam

Today, Facebook was fined 1.3 Billion by the EU over its handling of user information. This is over FB allegedly transferring EU user information to the US. They were also given five months to stop transferring users' data to the United States. This situation actually started over 10 years ago with Snowden exposing US snooping in a legal situation brought forward by Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems.

Outside of Facebook, it seems almost every day now some company suffer a data breach. Most of the time, the facts only come out long after the situation as they try to keep it under wraps or only recognise the breach weeks to months after. Further to this, companies outright sell user personal information to data houses and broker who in turn sell user information to buyers, who may use it unscrupulously. If you’re wondering, it is stunning easily to buy user information, in practice not very much different to how you’d go to a store and buy any product being only a bit more involved.

Considering all this, do we really want Web3. Web3 is a bit of a difficult concept to define, just as the Metaverse is, but generally it involves user “owning” their personal information as well as there being a thinning of the line that divides personal information and financial information where the same account that is used to identify you personally, is also used to manage and even transact financially. In our current climate of (poor) user information management, is this really a future we want?