Entrepreneurship is about to change. Companies will soon see a shift favoring privacy over pervasive data exploitation. Ken Griggs, creator of not.bot, predicts a rapidly approaching future where transparency and trust are the new currencies of entrepreneurial success.
“Right now, a lot of people have given up,” notes Griggs. “They say, ‘I’m going to be tracked, and there’s nothing I can do about it.’ But many desperately want a change. When they see companies trying to make that change, they notice.”
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Why Ken Griggs says there’s a problem when “data is the new moat”
Having “a moat” means possessing a competitive advantage that money alone can’t buy. Increasingly, entrepreneurs view unique data as this moat.
“Data fuels AI insights and customer understanding,” explains Griggs. “If you have exclusive data, your business can build solutions that competitors simply cannot replicate.”
However, this race to capture data has pushed many entrepreneurs down a dangerous path. In pursuit of maximizing this “moat,” some cross ethical lines. They violate privacy. They infringe on copyright. Most of all, they are appropriating sensitive information without consent.
Griggs recognizes this imbalance. He says, “The pendulum has swung too far towards data exploitation, but it’s about to swing back. The algorithms that manipulate personal data are starting to affect people in ways they don’t like.”
A shift toward ethical entrepreneurship
Griggs predicts that the pendulum is swinging fast. Why? People are tired of being tracked and having everybody know everything about them.
Leading this new wave is not.bot. The groundbreaking technology verifies digital identity without collecting or exposing any personal data. It offers companies a chance to differentiate themselves by respecting privacy and building trust.
How climate data led Ken Griggs to digital identity
Griggs’s inspiration for not.bot came during his work at a blockchain company. While there, he participated in the United Nations’ climate data collaboration.
“Countries were required to upload data about their climate-positive projects under the Kyoto Protocol,” Griggs remembers. “When many balked at logging into another country’s server, that system failed. The Paris Agreement called for a bottom-up approach. It aimed for countries to work together and hold each other accountable.”
Leveraging blockchain technology, Griggs and his team created the Climate Action Data Trust, a decentralized system where every country or participant could host its own mini-server, sharing data transparently as equals. This peer-to-peer accountability model solved a technical challenge and planted a seed in Griggs’ mind about privacy and trust in digital interactions.
“In the process of working on this project, it occurred to me that people should be able to interact as peers online without having governments or companies mediating their interactions,” he says. “For example, on every social media platform, it may be your account, but your data goes to their system and their database. If they decide to delete your post, or worse, to insert a post you never wrote, how would you prove that it wasn’t you? These centralized gatekeepers have the power to undermine both your authenticity and privacy.”
Ken Griggs creates a whole new kind of privacy-preserving technology
Creating not.bot meant grappling with privacy technologies that only very few people in the world understand. Griggs teamed up with Galois, a leader in secure computing for the Department of Defense. Together, they co-develop not.bot’s advanced multi-party computation algorithms.
“Most startup founders would never have access to that level of cryptographic capability,” explains Griggs. “I was fortunate to have a chance connection with Galois’ CEO. He loved the idea of being able to have a real digital identity that didn’t expose you to tracking or require you to give up information.”
The result? A revolutionary system that verifies a person’s identity without collecting or exposing personal data, moving entrepreneurship away from invasive data grabs towards genuine verification that respects user privacy.
Why entrepreneurs need not.bot now
The benefits of not.bot to entrepreneurs are powerful. Consumer trust tops the list. In a world weary of surveillance, companies that demonstrate ethical data practices build stronger, more loyal relationships.
Entrepreneurs also gain brand credibility when they stand behind data protection software such as not.bot. Transparency about privacy shows respect and responsibility and quickly differentiates companies from invasive competitors. Every company needs to distinguish between real customers and bots, and not.bot does so without compromising privacy.
Perhaps best of all, not.bot enables entrepreneurs to reduce their liability. By not collecting and storing personal data, entrepreneurs avoid creating “honeypots” for hackers. With breaches growing increasingly common, entrepreneurs now have the means to create a network of trusted consumers without worrying about legal repercussions.
How not.bot builds verified human networks
Griggs’ app allows anyone to verify their digital ID with small signatures called “stickers.” Scanning these stickers enables users to verify the sticker’s creator, an embedded message, and any other optional information. Each scan builds a trusted network of actual humans. No bots. No invasions of privacy.
Not.bot saves all the stickers a user scans in their personal history, which empowers them to keep track of their verified contacts. It’s a simple tool that is revolutionizing how entrepreneurs and consumers build relationships.
Not.bot points the way to an exciting entrepreneurial future
Ken Griggs envisions a future where entrepreneurship thrives when people make a conscious choice to protect data. While his commitment is strategic, it’s also deeply personal.
“For a long time, personal data has been treated like gold,” Griggs observes. “As the pendulum swings, not.bot enables you to join a better future. It’s a future where entrepreneurship is private.”
