The digital world is crowded with predictable conversations about AI, algorithms, and platform updates. Very few people dare to ask the questions that truly matter — the questions that challenge power, expose long-standing illusions, and force us to rethink the architecture of our online existence.
In this exclusive interview, we sat down with Preska Thomas, the visionary behind DebitMyData™, to explore the truths the tech world avoids, the systems that are quietly collapsing, and the future she believes every human deserves to own. Here’s our conversation — unfiltered, uncomfortable, and urgently necessary.
- Preska, you’ve said the world is entering a period where the systems that shaped the last two decades of digital life are starting to collapse. What systems are you referring to — and why now?
Preska Thomas: The system that is collapsing is the illusion that people were getting something for free. For nearly twenty years, the internet was built on a one-way relationship: companies collected, stored, manipulated, and monetized our behavior while giving us access as a distraction. But that model depended on one thing — our ignorance.
Today, people finally understand that their data is labor, identity is capital, and attention is currency. Once individuals wake up to that, the old system cannot survive.
We’re entering the era where people will not only ask, “What are you doing with my data?” but “What percentage of value am I entitled to?” That shift alone is enough to break the foundation of every major platform in the world.
- You’ve described the next decade as the rise of “data citizenship.” What does that mean in real terms?
Preska: Data citizenship means every person has a recognized economic identity in the digital world — the same way they have a legal identity in the physical world.
Right now, your digital identity is scattered across thousands of databases owned by companies who see you as a product, not a citizen. Data citizenship reverses that. It places sovereignty back in the hands of the individual.
In practical terms, it means:
- You control your data.
- You choose who has access.
- You set the terms.
- You gain value.
It’s a new social contract for the digital civilization we’re building.
- A contrarian question: many people say they don’t care about privacy because they have “nothing to hide.” Why is that thinking dangerous?
Preska: Because privacy has never been about hiding anything. It’s about protecting your autonomy.
Saying “I don’t care, I have nothing to hide,” is the digital equivalent of saying, “I don’t value myself enough to protect my identity, my patterns, my future.”
Data is not a secret — it’s an asset.
And when you don’t protect an asset, someone else will extract it.
The “nothing to hide” mentality is the biggest victory of tech companies. They made people feel small so the system could stay big. DebitMyData™ exists to flip that power dynamic.
- Which human rights do you believe will become digital rights in the coming decade?
Preska: Three rights are inevitable:
- The Right to Data Ownership
Your digital identity should be legally yours, not a company’s commodity. - The Right to Value Participation
If your data generates economic value — you deserve your share. - The Right to Algorithmic Transparency
You have the right to understand how machines shape your reality: what you see, what you’re shown, how you’re profiled.
- Let’s talk about creators. You’ve argued the creator economy is built on a hidden form of digital labor. Can you explain?
Preska: Creators are the modern workforce — except they’re unpaid at the structural level.
They bring creativity, culture, community, and massive economic value. But the platforms take the lion’s share because creators don’t own their data or distribution.
Creators think they’re independent, but the truth is they are dependent on algorithms, platform policies, and data asymmetry.
DebitMyData™ gives creators what they’ve never had:
- Transparency
- Value attribution
- Data leverage
- Negotiation power
For the first time, creators can operate like businesses rather than digital laborers.
- Many tech leaders talk about innovation. You talk about evolution. What’s the difference?
Preska:
Innovation is about speed, efficiency, and disruption.
Evolution is about consciousness, ethics, and sustainability.
Innovation builds products.
Evolution builds systems.
Innovation asks, “What can we create?”
Evolution asks, “What should we create — and who benefits?”
DebitMyData™ is an evolution, not an innovation. It doesn’t just change the tech — it changes the power structure.
Looking ahead to 2035, what does the digital world look like if the vision behind DebitMyData™ becomes reality?
Preska: Imagine a world where your digital footprint is not a shadow that follows you — but an asset that works for you.
A world where:
- Your identity is portable and protected
- You earn from every piece of value your activity generates
- Data exploitation becomes impossible
- Creators have financial independence
- Platforms compete ethically
- Digital rights are treated with the same seriousness as human rights
That’s not a dream. It’s a blueprint — and we’re building it now.
- One last contrarian question: What is the biggest misconception people have about the tech industry?
Preska: That the tech industry is run by geniuses.
It’s actually run by opportunists who realized before the rest of the world that human behavior is the most valuable commodity on Earth.
But the era of opportunists is ending. The future belongs to architects — the ones who build systems aligned with human dignity. And that future is already unfolding.
