Do you remember what it feels like to be a kid? The joy of riding a bike, the exhilaration of running across an open field and feeling the wind on your face, that first lick of ice cream on a hot summer’s day. You had no bills to pay, places to go, or jobs to work.
At TARTLE, we think it’s time to bring that back for people. The marketplace is our way of empowering individuals to seize control of their data and profit off of their hard work. It’s only right that you benefit the most from the effort you put out on the internet—which is not what is happening in the status quo. Especially if you are one of many people living in an authoritarian regime.
This episode is a continuation of Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby’s discussion on helping people under regimes find freedom.
One indication that a person is living under an authoritarian regime is to look at their capacity for free speech. A good test would be to see if individuals like you and I can go to a public space and openly criticize the government, or their leader. If just the thought of it makes you shudder, you are living in a regime.
An extension of this freedom that regimes do not have, is the availability of reading materials and other kinds of media that may look controversial, or against the government. How heavy is censorship in these areas? While censorship does occur in varying degrees around the world, even in liberal democracies, it becomes a problem when it’s used excessively in an authoritarian regime —and for the sole benefit of keeping those in power, empowered above everyone else.
Another aspect of authoritarian regimes involve issues with property rights. When it comes to personal data, you’d think that you would have sole control over it because it’s something you produce as an autonomous being. But regimes are constantly on the lookout for ways to secure your genomic information and location, which are two of the most in-demand data packets in the world.
These packets are often passively collected by your smartphone or gadgets on a regular basis, and they tell a lot about who you are as a person. It’s a direct expression of your freedom of movement and your biological makeup. When an outside entity seeks to restrict or control you based on what you were born with or where you want to go, you are living under a regime.
In passing, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby raise an interesting thought to ponder: what if you are already under an authoritarian regime?
By virtue of your participation on big tech platforms that do not commit themselves to open and transparent practices, you are already a pawn in someone else’s game of chess. Try and find out how much of your data is being used for someone else’s profit; you’ll be shocked at just how much you’re missing out. That's how you know you're in a regime.
With TARTLE, you don’t need to worry about someone else coming in and taking all your data. The hard work you put into curating your digital personality will benefit only you, at the pace that you choose. And unlike regimes, we don't take credit for your hard work. We make sure that the marketplace is a transparent, decentralized system where fraud, oppression, and corruption cannot exist. It's a far cry from the life others are struggling to life in under a regime.
TARTLE wants you to reclaim what is rightfully yours. We don’t put a lot of thought into how much money and information we’re giving away everytime we connect to the internet. This is your opportunity to take the first step on the road to becoming a data champion, and to help those who are oppressed under authoritarian regimes.
When you realize the full potential of what your data is capable of doing, your influence is limitless.
It's time to bring down regimes together.
What’s your data worth?
If you are reading this while living under an authoritarian regime and you need help, blink twice now.
Hopefully, you’ll be one of many people who can just brush off this awkward attempt at a joke and laugh. But realistically, you may also be one of many more who are living in countries that are experiencing a steady decline in freedom—if not a total absence, in the first place.
The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a heavy blow on democracy. While this report by the Freedom House pinpointed the start of the decline to be in 2006, freedom has faced heavy losses in 2021 amidst the economic and political stability caused by COVID-19.
Now, more than ever, we need a platform where we can unite under a common cause.
According to Jason Rigby, there are three main issues you can look at to understand whether or not the place is under an authoritarian regime: illiteracy, fraud, and health.
Authoritarian regimes have a vested interest in keeping their people illiterate because if their people don’t learn, then they don’t know that they deserve any better. This is a strategy that has been tried and tested in the past. Book burning and art destruction have been carried out by the Nazis, and African-American slaves were banned from reading books.
And it’s a reality that persists today. Through TARTLE, our goal is to give oppressed individuals an opportunity to rise above that system. Sign up, work, and learn as you go. TARTLE is the antithesis for authoritarian regimes.
Fraud is also commonplace in authoritarian regimes. After all, when you are invested in maintaining a position and status that harms the quality of living for everybody else, there is little you wouldn’t do to make money. War, strife, and suffering are all opportunities to keep the wealth gap wide and the funds in abundance.
With TARTLE, fraud does not exist. The platform has been developed to make everything transparent. All the transactions are on the blockchain and recorded in a huge public ledger so that no one can make pseudo-copies of your information.
It is not possible for others to take credit for your work, or to give different prices according to where you are located. On the marketplace, we are all human beings and we are all priceless.
Finally, the last prevalent issue in authoritarian regimes is health. People living in a regime struggle not just because they don’t have immediate access to medical support, but also because of scarcity in food supply. These are only available for the one percent, who have all the power and control over the market. The rest of the country will have limits.
We need to take strong and direct action that can help the people on the ground. When you sign up for TARTLE, you have the opportunity to use your personal data to help these people by selling it to organizations that provide humanitarian aid.
We are just giving you the facts. You have the free will and the opportunity to live. Most of us have been taught that we can only care for ourselves and the people we love, one day at a time. With TARTLE, you can be a part of a greater movement. It is possible, here, to make a difference and leave an imprint on the rest of humanity. This is where authoritarian regimes fall.
What’s your data worth? Sign up for the TARTLE Marketplace through our link here.
