Many would say that her outlook is quite bleak: Having to input her details time after time to live in her digital world; then having to give her consent for the data to be used; little control over this data once she has given it; increasing levels of identity theft; huge imposition of irrelevant promotional messages. And all of is this driving a multi-billion dollar industry of which she has no share.
But it doesn’t have to be like this in the future.
New technology is enabling antidotes to all the above woes, despite having created them in the first place. This is a world of new technical standards, highly valuable patents, big investments and real disruption of some very cosy areas of status quo in major commercial markets.
A new generation of personal data stores will enable Alice to build a secure digital filing cabinet of as much of her data as she wishes: Personal Details; Health information; Future Plans; Items she owns; Items or services she wants. These services will mean she keeps all the information she needs to run her life at her fingertips whenever she needs it. DataPal is an early example of one of these services. It has been developed by a team from the UK and US operations of Personal Data Labs. Unlike current similar services it is about controlled sharing of the data rather than locking it away from everyone and everything.
She can have her own, self-generated digital identifier from birth that will uniquely identify her anywhere in the digital world. It will mean never having to worry about usernames and passwords. This will be an entirely new type of identifier called a FedID (Federated Digital ID). This can be verified without reliance on any single service provider or data source. So, unlike logging via Facebook or Google there is no need for their continued availability or existence, and they cannot track the places where you login.
Alice will have complete control over who she shares her data with. She creates ‘connections’ with providers that she selects or that approach her with a relevant reason for forming a relationship. These providers can commercial organisations, apps of any type or data services that she uses.
Alice doesn’t need to re-enter the same data each time she creates a new connection and can share as much of as little data as she wishes with each connection. Updating her information, for instance with a new phone number, can be done for all her ‘connections’ at one go and she can withdraw access to the data whenever she wishes.
All of Alice’s data transactions are operated under a new internet protocol called JLINC. This delivers world-leading data governance and creates an indisputable log of what has happened to her data. It effectively moves the emphasis for her privacy and protection of her data away from many individual consents given to her providers. It replaces these with a contractual arrangement, called a Standard Information Sharing Agreement (a SISA) in which she is an active participant rather than a passive donor.
Alice will have access to AI (Artificial Intelligence) agents that will learn about her from her data and prompt her, for instance, when contracts or memberships are about to expire. These agents will also handle interactions with the AI Agents of the thousand of providers who would like to sell her their goods and services. She will get sensible, relevant recommendations about potential providers based on a much wider understanding of the market than she would have time to build. She can also prompt her agents with her specific ‘things I want’ data entries to inform and direct their efforts.
This one is not as certain as the others as it means invading those cosy arrangements within the vast personal data and AdTech Markets that were referred to earlier. The technology and shift in control outlined in this item makes it entirely possible for Alice to share in the market’s revenues by being paid for sharing her data and each time she is served an advert on-line. Advertising that is ‘pulled’ by Alice and her data will have much higher relevancy and engagement / conversion rates than the current ‘best guess’ model
Finding out more
We have kept this item intentionally brief and as easy to understand as possible. If you would like to know more about some of the technology, concepts and products mentioned please use these links:
Click herefor more about DataPal Personal Information Store.
Click hereto understand more about the underlying JLINC Protocol.
Click here to find out more about Federated Digital IDs
Click here to see our perspective on moving data protection from consent to contract.