Will the trade-off between privacy and convenience become the norm in our digitised future? Or will people reclaim control, heralding a new era for the internet?

Digital technology today mainly uses two senses - sight and sound. But it may not be long before we can feel, taste and smell digital objects in a way that is indistinguishable from physical experiences.

One of the foremost applications of crowdsourcing is in solving hard or complex problems. The old adage says that two heads are better than one. Well, by crowdsourcing solutions for complex problems from thousands or possibly even millions of people, solutions might be not only better but arrive much faster.

The Blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrency Bitcoin. It is one of the most discussed emerging technologies by the financial sector and seen as the next technological revolution by social and cultural visionaries. But is it hype, or a real technological change in progress?

For over a decade website visitors needed to prove being a human by clicking a checkbox or solving simple challenges called Captchas. Google’s evolved service, invisible reCAPTCHA, can now perform the check-up automatically by recognising humans based on their online behaviour. This is yet another algorithmic surveillance we wilfully submit to.

A key inventor of the WWW, Tim Berners-Lee is concerned about the current state of the Internet. According to Berners-Lee, three trends threaten the Internet; people have lost control over their personal data, misinformation spreads fast, and political advertising lacks transparency.