Prof. Irene Ng (UK, U Warwick) wrote in Scientific American opinion blog:
Google, Facebook and most other big tech companies don’t typically give customers exclusive custodial rights over their data. As threats to their security and reputations mount, however, these companies are starting to change their tune. In the case of Whatsapp, Facebook still retains customer metadata that can be used for ad targeting but has essentially locked itself out of customer messages. As with Apple, it’s unclear whether this approach shields Facebook from having to unlock encrypted Whatsapp messages if the government demands it.
All of this uncertainty opens the door to new types of services that allow people to store personal information apart from the Apples and Googles of the world. The HAT Foundation’s “hub of all things” project, for example, offers the equivalent of a personal Internet data container—sometimes referred to as a microservice container—and lets people set the terms for how businesses, Web sites and others online services contribute to and access this data.
Here is Irene’s article
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/what-the-apple-versus-fbi-debacle-taught-us/
Her blog on HAT and rights
Irene Ng
Director, International Institute of Product and Service Innovation
Professor of Marketing and Service Systems
WMG, University of Warwick
ESRC/InnovateUK Innovation Caucus Thought leader
http://www.ireneng.com