We have found that asking people directly, as one would in a physical interaction, is a strong practice. How might your experience of the Internet shift if people who had access to your digital body, whether in the form of photos or contact information, were to check in with you from time to time about it? What technologies would we need to build to help us manage ongoing and direct consent processes?

Platforms like Google are incorporating periodic check-ins with users about what they’ve consented to, which is a good start.

If we can’t make it safer then we can acknowledge the remaining risks and educate users about them.

We can do better. By designing the system so certain things are impossible, we lower the trust barrier for that system.