We sat down with Liberty AIM founder Christopher Johnston and asked all the difficult questions so you don’t have to.

Part 2 of 2.

On the previous edition of this two-part article, we asked Christopher Johnston, the CEO and founder of Liberty Browser and AIM, to tell us how the idea of Liberty AIM started. His end game has always been to reclaim consumer’s digital sovereignty; he wants the user — not the big companies — to have the power to choose how their data is being shared.

Here is what he has to say about the current dominating market surrounding digital data:

You say that the duopoly Facebook has with Google isn’t good, not even for them. Can you explain what you mean by this?

Duopoly, monopoly… The stuff that has happened with extreme harvesting by both players would not happen if there were more players. But as they have almost complete control, it is a race to the bottom for both.

Facebook drops lifetime cookies into the browsers of non-users to track them.

Google record SSIDs from every private router across the globe when capturing street view pictures to further track user data.

The rule is, you do until you are told to stop: everything is OK until it becomes illegal, and currently (even considering the Cambridge Analytica scandal), a lot of things aren’t illegal.

Facebook vs Google: do you reckon the duopoly of these two giants is just the first of many events that will bring us hurtling towards Big Brother era?

These Big Brother stories trace their roots back to good old fashioned government surveillance. As Winston Churchill said, “those that trade liberty in the name of security, deserve neither.”

To be honest, I have already upset the internet establishment with my views, products and patents — now probably isn’t the best time to fight with the government as well.

Duopoly isn’t good for anyone — not the user, not the advertiser, not the publisher, and not even Google nor Facebook. What’s the response been? More than 600 million ad blockers. Apple has started deleting cookies in their latest version of Safari. Publishers will be starved of funds to produce content, journalists will not get paid and a less diverse Internet will exist. Paywalls will, and have come up, to pay bills. The freedom we see stifled in real life will echo loud and long in the online space.

The only way to “fix the internet” is to democratise data and put the user back in control. Reward users for sharing their data whilst respecting their privacy and the need for ad blockers. With these, cookie killers and paywalls will diminish significantly.

Every great TGE project says to have the first steps to a solution, not the final answer. Where do you see Liberty AIM in 20 years?

We are a team of exceptional engineers, patents, revenues, over 10,000 advertising partners who represent the biggest names and brands in various global sectors. We don’t just have the first steps, we have the solution and final answer today.

This answer might change tomorrow and next year, but we have the leadership and innovation to match the big players.

We will come up with better and greater products to meet tomorrow’s and next year’s challenges. We put the user in charge of this huge natural resource, THEIR OWN activity data.

As for 20 years from now, I’m sure the Liberty AIM token will be a payment token and anonymity and data privacy will be respected either through choice or out of enforcement from the Liberty operating system. It’s going to be more than just browsing and phones.

— end of part 2 —

To find out more about Liberty AIM, visit our website: libertyaim.io

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