Existing dialogue technologies create economic dependence, and lack data ethics

Presently, existing Social Media companies own the most accessible and widespread discussion technologies available on the Web. This implies that business and organisations have to pay substantial sums to access technologies for online discussion, on which they have no control and that cannot be customised to their organisational needs. Also, in order to be granted access to these technologies organisations have to “trade” their data rights, which is problematic; because online dialogue systems often contain highly sensitive data, and if well-structured and processed can be misused. Hence, the centralisation of dialogue technologies produces economic dependence from big social media companies and is highly problematic in terms of data ethics and privacy. This motivates the importance to design new tools for accessible online discussions that are decentralised.