The Trust Manifesto: What You Need to Do to Create a Better Internet

by Damian Bradfield

From the moment we wake up and unlock our phones, we're producing data. We offer up our unique fingerprint to the online world, scan our route to work, listen to a guided meditation or favorite playlist, slide money around, share documents and update our social media accounts. We reach for our phones up to 200 times a day, not knowing which companies are storing, using, selling and manipulating our data. But do we care? We're busy. We've got lives. We're pressed for time! There aren't enough hours in the day to read the terms and conditions. Or, maybe we're happy to trade our personal data for convenient services and to make our lives easier? Big data is the phenomenon of our age, but should we trust it without question? This is the trust dilemma. Damian is Chief Creative Officer and founding shareholder of WeTransfer, the largest file-sharing platform in the world with 50 million global users, shipping more than one billion files of data a month. His unique experience of the big data economy has led him to question if there is another way to build the internet, one that is fairer and safer for everyone and, in The Trust Manifesto , he lays out this vision.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Technology

336 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2020

About the author

Damian is the Co-Founder of WeTransfer, Chairman of The Supporting Act foundation and trustee of Alexander McQueens Sarabande foundation.

He is also a writer and producer.

Reviews

[Shailee Basu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given it 4 stars ideally but there were no citations in the book. No endnotes either. I had to look up every assertion made by the author (which were true). There is a lot of talk about why Facebook, Amazon etc are not the best out there, how they are farming for data, changing geopolitics, breaching privacy etc but the author does not talk much about "why" that is the case. Informative, but I had to look up most of the information in order to understand a lot of things. I liked the interviews.

[atlanticbroadband · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book because I want to create a better internet. The only thing I learned was that I should stop using Instagram (maybe) and that the only real skill a tech executive (whether the author or one of those interviewed) has is self/corporate promotion. At one point the author refers to Amazon as a "Russian novelist," which is pretty funny -- they're responsible for a huge part of making the internet worse. So maybe he really didn't like War & Peace, I don't know. It may also be worth noting that at least two out of the other three people who have reviewed the book possibly work for WeTransfer - the company the author is in charge of - in one case as a "Director of Communications." What you need to do to create a better internet is still a mystery, but it's definitely not reading this book.

[Martijn Reintjes · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When you step away to consider it, our lives are wondrous in what we take for granted."

This book/manifesto underlines again what I already knew: big companies are using our data against us. We are not people anymore but users and we are milked for our attention and interest so we can be milked out of our money and our joy of living.

My favourite question for data scientists is: What did you want to achieve when you started? When you were a kid, did you dream you’d be able to learn so much about a person that you’d be able to market to them on a granular, almost cellular, level? Did you think you’d join a cult called data? Did you dream of capturing every heartbeat from the people around you? Did you dream of becoming a socially acceptable stalker?

[Carol Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued as this was written by the founder of WeTransfer (an amazing site, loved by so many designers/creatives!). I have been thinking a lot about the importance of engaging and working for companies that have strong morals/ values and whose primary aim isn't for exponential growth and high profit margins but rather do good and create change. While the book offers interesting insights into the tech industry with Bradfield talking about WeTranfser while also interviewing several other founders (enjoyed the brief reference to Stephen Fry ;), it becomes repetitive in the end with maybe a bit too much self-praise. The interesting idea of a creating a better internet wasn't explored enough in how it can be done strategically with more realistic actionable steps.

[Misael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking read about data and technology, and the unregulated tech giants that we so gladly give our information to. So many people don't realize how free software services are funded, and the role we play in keeping them afloat.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

you learn a lot from this book!

An awareness of using the internet, some websites come in with terms and conditions asking our first child to be donated to them, the deleted videos and images from our site can become the property of a website or social media. We are least bothered about our responsibility towards accepting the T&C.

The Author says, we are so careless about our data and our personal things watched and shared by the site we use recklessly.

interviewed people who have developed apps and sites to secure privacy of the user but...
It's more like a whistle against the stealing of data without the consent of the user.

I don't think we are responsible for what ever said. even after reading his book,

The book enlightens about the pros and cons of the internet..
Great effort!

[Anastassia · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable and easy-to-read book, covering a topical issue that we need to address in the ever-evolving world of tech and data. I loved how the book set out its information, where the author's opinions were insightful and clear. Although the discussions with other people were great, I would have preferred to get that knowledge through i.e. a podcast, and rather the author elaborate on their own views a bit more; as what he had to say was valuable and it would have been better if there was more of it. Overall, I think that the examples of the real world were great and definitely made me want to look further into the topics that the book covered.

[Hilary Maloney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, this is really a personal manifesto. It's a nice telling of WeTransfer's history, and the thought-provoking interviews are certainly its best feature. But the writing struck me as stream-of-conscious and shallow at points, even insecure or perhaps just inexperienced in its impression of San Francisco as monolithic. I didn't learn much, but the book nudges you to keep on searching for answers to its questions. It's a fast read and Damian Bradfield is the real deal -- it's worth reading just to observe how he thinks about these issues and how he's built a very cool business that doesn't fit the mold.

[- · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a compelling and fresh way, this book makes you think about how data and technology have changed our notion of trust. The author does a great job illustrating how the values and standards that we respect and expect in offline organizations and behavior, are basically non-existent in the online world. And we seem to all just go along with that..
Weaving in the WeTransfer story was really interesting, it gives a new perspective on the success stories coming out of Silicon Valley that we usually read about - and shows how (tech) companies could do things differently. This book made me realize it’s time for us as consumers to step up, take action and demand a better internet.

[Rain Mirage · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ironically, an undisclosed WeTransfer ad. Contains the incredible self-own quote: "Does something... new emerge - probably out of blockchain technology - that allows us to own more of our own data?"

Also features interviews from people whose opinions are highly relevant to data security: a guy who founded a bottled water company that pepsico manufactures, Gary Kasparov (?) and Stephen Fry (??). Why do I care what Gary Kasparov thinks about internet privacy concerns...

[Eyecandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The start was a very 'oh no not this sort of hollow statements about the internet' again. Very uneasy reading due the short sentences and the deliberatly placement of spaced words.
Luckily the other two-thirds of the book are quite enjoyable interviews and thoughts about making a 'better internet'. It won't come with answers but provides the needed questions.

[Thijs Van Amelsfort · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts with an epilogue about how we are exposed to the Internet with big data. From chapter two onwards the writing style of the book changes and it feels like you’re reading a biography of wetransfer. It didn’t match my expectations, but it was fine afterall.

[Orlando · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant and engaging book. An insider's look at the state of tech. An ode to trust in the age of distrust, featuring conversations with Jimmy Wales, Gabriel Weinberg among others...

[Jenne Meerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very compelling read. Would recommend!

[Ed Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stuff. Easy to read. Important. It's no longer funny to say that 'we are the product' - we can do better than that.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ideas....didn't get to finish it but not so upset, distracted with other books at the moment!!