Hi arsnebula,
I too came here from this point of view, but feel the exact wording of your expectiations describe an oxymoron.
One of the key opportunities decentralising our information provides is simply a paradigm whereby you could feasibly have a unique repository that represents you within a digital space.
Within this repository where you store your actual information, the only data that should then need be publicly revealed is the single unique key for your repository itself, this would essentially be your public identity.
Now the distinction is how that data is then handled,
The typical information captured by any service or website is your full name, address and date of birth, and the excuse for this is for them to do what we have already accomplished above, to create a unique profile that differentiates you from the next Joe Bloggs using their service.
In a perfect world, services would be using protocols that are designed to determine the validity of data but without exposing the data itself, so the service needn’t capture your details, only to process them in order to facilitate whatever action that instigated the requirement in the first place.
In this way your personal information need never be given away in the first place but can still be used to verify your identity if and when needed.
This is easy enough to say, but there are plenty examples where this still falls flat as it is, but the general concept remains, the less information you have to give away in the first place, the closer we are to true freedom of privacy.
Of course, we don’t live in a perfect world, far from it, and there is no shortage of “individual” and might I say polarising perspectives and philosophies, this is singularly one of the greatest aspects of our species and also the most conflicting.
Unfortunately there never will be a single answer to obtaining and maintaining true freedom, it isn’t obvious to most, but freedom means something different to everyone and is largely based on the accumulated interpretations of each individual’s experiences, as well as to a lesser degree their social and cultural influences.
And there will always be someone who finds a way to subvert these systems, of the platform itself.
Hell, our governments only survive by the contributions of their society, and governing that society requires a certian level of control, it is a constant balance we will never truly win and hope to god we never lose either.
Sorry for the rant, I guess I just wanted to say, no one should see this as a cure, there is no cure of the subjects being discussed, but this does have a lot of potential to change the current landscape and that is exciting in itself.
This is also only the beginning.