Demand Your Personal Data Back?

Tim Berners-Lee, one of the pioneers of the Internet, recently gave an interview urging Internet users to demand their personal data back from Facebook and Google and to further insist on the means to use that data to make their personal life easier. There is some common sense to that. It would be great to have your computer help you manage what you eat, your exercise level, and more. Berners-Lee also cites that it would be great to have your computer tell you what you should read in the morning based on past preferences. (The latter I find a bit dangerous to democracy as I am not really interested necessarily in just what Google thinks I should read, but it would be helpful if my computer could help keep me up with issues of interest.) Berners-Lee also recognizes that online privacy is a balancing act, and thinks the “do not track” feature, being debated by the Federal Trade Commission, would increase web users' confidence that data about them was not being abused. The “do not track” feature would mean you could "flip a switch" on your browser (like Safari, Chrome, or FireFox) which would prevent the tracking of your online activity.