Think of the Web as a digital territory with its own social contract. In 2014, Tim Berners-Lee called for a “Magna Carta for the Web” to restore the balance of power between individuals and institutions. This mirrors the original charter’s purpose: ensuring that those who occupy a territory have a meaningful stake in its governance.
Web 3.0—the distributed, decentralized Web of tomorrow—is finally poised to change the Internet’s dynamic by returning ownership to data creators. This will change many things about what’s often described as the “CIA triad” of digital security: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Of those three features, data integrity will become of paramount importance.
Ariane 5 Rocket (1996)
Ariane 5 Rocket (1996)
Processing integrity failure
A 64-bit velocity calculation was converted to a 16-bit output, causing an error called overflow. The corrupted data triggered catastrophic course corrections that forced the US $370 million rocket to self-destruct.
When we have agency in digital spaces, we naturally maintain their integrity—protecting them from deterioration and shaping them with intention. But in territories controlled by distant platforms, where we’re merely temporary visitors, that connection frays. A disconnect emerges between those who benefit from data and those who bear the consequences of compromised integrity. Like homeowners who care deeply about maintaining the property they own, users in the Web 3.0 paradigm will become stewards of their personal digital spaces.
This will be critical in a world where AI agents don’t just answer our questions but act on our behalf. These agents may execute financial transactions, coordinate complex workflows, and autonomously operate critical infrastructure, making decisions that ripple through entire industries. As digital agents become more autonomous and interconnected, the question is no longer whether we will trust AI but what that trust is built upon. In the new age we’re entering, the foundation isn’t intelligence or efficiency—it’s integrity.
What Is Data Integrity?
In information systems, integrity is the guarantee that data will not be modified without authorization, and that all transformations are verifiable throughout the data’s life cycle. While availability ensures that systems are running and confidentiality prevents unauthorized access, integrity focuses on whether information is accurate, unaltered, and consistent across systems and over time.
NASA Mars Climate Orbiter (1999)
NASA Mars Climate Orbiter (1999)
Processing integrity failure
Lockheed Martin’s software calculated thrust in pound-seconds, while NASA’s navigation software expected newton-seconds. The failure caused the $328 million spacecraft to burn up in the Mars atmosphere.
It’s a new idea. The undo button, which prevents accidental data loss, is an integrity feature. So is the reboot process, which returns a computer to a known good state. Checksums are…
Read full article: Data Integrity: The Key to Trust in AI Systems
The post “Data Integrity: The Key to Trust in AI Systems” by Bruce Schneier was published on 08/18/2025 by spectrum.ieee.org