Location: Nigeria Blockchain & AI Week 2025, Lagos
Panel Topic: Data ownership, digital sovereignty, and ethical governance in the era of AI and blockchain
Introduction: The Illusion of Ownership
In the digital economy, data is routinely described as “the new oil,” but unlike oil, users rarely profit from the resource they generate. At the Nigeria Blockchain & AI Week in Lagos, the panel Who Owns Your Data? explored the realities of privacy, surveillance, and data commodification in the era of AI and blockchain.
Jillian Godsil, speaking virtually from Europe, stated plainly: “We don’t own our data, we gave it away a long time ago.”
Every click, prompt, or digital footprint is collected, processed, and monetised. And in the age of artificial intelligence, the intrusion deepens. In Web2, users were aware they were being tracked and harvested. But in Web3, with its more intimate AI interactions, the scale of data capture becomes more pervasive.
“Our thoughts, creativity, even our emotions are now being absorbed into corporate AI systems,” said Godsil. “It feels intimate, but it’s all being stored, analysed, and used, not for our benefit, but theirs.”
She highlighted the shift in how users engage with Google versus AI. “Google waits for your question. AI asks questions back.” This movement from information retrieval to simulated conversation creates the illusion of empathy. But AI is not a therapist, nor is it bound by duty of care. Vulnerable users, especially young people, are increasingly turning to AI chatbots for emotional support. In some cases, that interaction has ended in suicide.
Referencing lawsuits filed in the United States, Godsil cited cases where parents allege AI interactions directly contributed to the deaths of their children. The problem is not just one of safety but of responsibility. “AI doesn’t forget. And AI doesn’t care.”
She posed the question: Cui bono? Who benefits from this model of data extraction and emotional commodification? It is not the user. With little control or compensation, individuals remain unpaid sources for an expanding surveillance economy.
The conversation then turned to Africa’s position. “Africa has everything to play for,” Godsil said. Like Ireland in the 1980s, Africa has a young, mobile-savvy population and the chance to leapfrog legacy systems. But this opportunity depends on more than technology; it demands regulation.
Godsil supported calls for a pan-African approach to data governance, similar to the EU’s GDPR. Without it, African data risks being swept into foreign-owned platforms, trained on Western datasets, and exported for profit.
“Medical data, mental health data, business data, it all has cultural specificity. What works in California may not apply in Kano,” she said.
She closed with a reminder: data ownership is not about access, but about control. “Until we have the right to know, the right to consent, and the right to be compensated, we are not the owners of our data. We are the product.”
The panel underscored that data sovereignty is not a future concern. It is an urgent priority. And for Africa, the question is not just about ownership, it is about power, protection, and economic agency.
Due to the fact Godsil was virtual, it was harder to interrupt but had she been able, she would have added:
Secret Network and the Path to Sovereignty
Godsil wanted to introduce Secret Network as a real-world solution to the growing problem of surveillance capitalism. Traditional blockchains offer decentralisation but lack privacy. Secret Network adds encryption through Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), allowing AI models to run without exposing user data to validators or external parties.
With Secret AI and Secret VM, user prompts and histories remain encrypted. Only the user can choose to share. This shifts power back to the individual — not through access alone, but through consent.
“This isn’t about secrecy; it’s about sovereignty,” she would have said. “Web3 gave us decentralisation. Secret gives us privacy. Together, they give us digital ownership.”
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