Now is the time to build a secure identity infrastructure to do for personal data services what the internet did for communications
Professor Philip Treleaven, London 2017
As we move from a world of isolated transactions to one of digitally interconnected ones the global financial system is rapidly being displaced by the global data system; data is both the ‘new wealth’, and the ‘energy’ powering commerce.
Banking, health services and our interactions with governments are all reliant on a trust of identity. The realisation that very large flows of data from interconnected transaction were beginning to be combined without an individuals full understanding has only just started to permeate both the public consciousness and that of government.
As technologies emerge to support the recording and control of our environment and the transactions we make within it our data is being pooled on an extraordinarily large scale. The globally connected internet population totals 3.7 billion users and there are currently 11 billion devices connected to the internet of things (IoT), both are growing at extraordinary rates.
data is both the ‘new wealth’, and the ‘energy’ powering commerce.
Consumers are starting to recognise the financial value of their personal data, naturally seek ownership and personal benefit. In response the UK Government is discussing legislating for consumers to take ownership of their data from banks and supermarkets etc. Increasingly there are calls for a Bill of Digital Rights with the existing large platform companies merely being transactional. Therefore, a vision of a global data system supported by a data banking industry is highly credible.
Currently data is generated largely through our digital interactions and is generally channelled through individual platform industries such as banking, social media, classic media, retail, transport etc. Very little of this interaction is recorded or owned by the individual and the value is accrued by the provider of the platform. Awareness of personal identity and security is rising and the potential for the individual to own their own identity and the data generated by their interactions with others is now possible.
The potential to create an individuals protected identity and for this to sit in a secured and anonymised layer of vaults allows privacy with the potential value of access to anonymised data. If data regulation moves to protect the individuals rights there will need to be a means for the individual to transact in a relationship of trust as robust as the credit checks or proofs of identity needed today without generating a wider profile of their identity.
What is emerging is a global Data Services Industry sector, analogous to the global Financial Services Industry, which requires a universal infrastructure.
Increasingly there are
calls for a Bill of
Digital Rights
Numerous organisations are building proprietary highly-secure blockchain data infrastructures
eEstonia for the public sector
Smart Dubai for business
KYC for the banks’ customers
HAT (Hub of all Things) to manage personal data
Singapore’s national trade platform
This is reminiscent of the communications sector, prior to the Internet becoming ubiquitous.
What is required is a universal, highly- secure blockchain infrastructure where each individual, company or client has a unique identifier, a personal data repository and permissioned access control.
This universal infrastructure can then support the emerging Data Services Industry sector offering: retail, transactional Data Banking; wholesale investment and trading Data Banking; Insurance around the loss of data; compliance and regulation; legal services; charity and sponsorship etc.
A Data Services Industry’s universal infrastructure can enable enormous cross sector opportunity. There are a number of major social and economic drivers that arguably make this vision inevitable:
the growing social concerns around data privacy, anonymity and unethical use of personal data
increasing desire of individuals to benefit from their data rather than Facebook, Google and Amazon
growing political pressure in Europe to curb the power/excesses of US data companies the various Open (government) data initiatives
industry sectors such as finance seeking to automate transactions and reduce costs the uberisation of professional Services
growing problems of data security, hacking, and data breaches
pressure to legislate for citizens to have the right of access to their data
The most obvious driver is consumers recognising the value of their data and naturally wishing to exploit this for their personal benefit:
Privacy/security - consumers are increasingly concerned about the privacy, security and accessibility of their personal data, given the increasing number of high- profile data breaches
Custodians - commercial organisations storing consumer data have proved themselves poor custodians, leaving customers open to identity theft, financial loss and public embarrassment
Heterogeneity - Big Data analytics relies on access to increasingly large amounts of heterogeneous data
Monetisation - consumers increasingly recognise the commercial value of their personal data and resent companies exploiting this value, without benefit to them
Personalisation - online service platforms are moving from a company-centric to a customer-centric view of personal data. For example, eHealth services have introduced personal healthcare records
eGovernment - governments are using blockchain DLT technology to have a single e-Identifier and e-Repository for each citizen. Estonia’s e-Estonia is a pioneering example.
Open Access - governments are encouraging open data initiatives, making public sector data available online;
Legislation - Governments are legislating for consumers to automatically have right of access to their data. The European Commission is likely to champion this, against the US digital giants.
The proposed Data Services Industry eInfrastructure (if pursued commercially) will create the data equivalent of a sovereign wealth fund which can be exploited nationally for research and also for growing a new generation of elite data-driven start- ups.
The social genome will be a huge collection of ubiquitous personal data about members of society that is captured in ever-larger and ever-more complex datasets (e.g. government administrative data, commercial, operational data, social media data etc.).
Such a wealth of social and business data will be unique globally; hence the analogy with a sovereign wealth fund.
As discussed, underpinning the infrastructure are Data Vaults; highly secure data server facilities located in the centres of cities. This is necessary to provide the escalating data bandwidth requirements. Data vaults also address the Governments increasing concern about the control and security of our national data resources.
Such a
wealth of social and business data will be unique globally
Professor Philip Treleaven, London 2017
As we move from a world of isolated transactions to one of digitally interconnected ones the global financial system is rapidly being displaced by the global data system; data is both the ‘new wealth’, and the ‘energy’ powering commerce.
Banking, health services and our interactions with governments are all reliant on a trust of identity. The realisation that very large flows of data from interconnected transaction were beginning to be combined without an individuals full understanding has only just started to permeate both the public consciousness and that of government.
As technologies emerge to support the recording and control of our environment and the transactions we make within it our data is being pooled on an extraordinarily large scale. The globally connected internet population totals 3.7 billion users and there are currently 11 billion devices connected to the internet of things (IoT), both are growing at extraordinary rates.
data is both the ‘new wealth’, and the ‘energy’ powering commerce.
Consumers are starting to recognise the financial value of their personal data, naturally seek ownership and personal benefit. In response the UK Government is discussing legislating for consumers to take ownership of their data from banks and supermarkets etc. Increasingly there are calls for a Bill of Digital Rights with the existing large platform companies merely being transactional. Therefore, a vision of a global data system supported by a data banking industry is highly credible.
Currently data is generated largely through our digital interactions and is generally channelled through individual platform industries such as banking, social media, classic media, retail, transport etc. Very little of this interaction is recorded or owned by the individual and the value is accrued by the provider of the platform. Awareness of personal identity and security is rising and the potential for the individual to own their own identity and the data generated by their interactions with others is now possible.
The potential to create an individuals protected identity and for this to sit in a secured and anonymised layer of vaults allows privacy with the potential value of access to anonymised data. If data regulation moves to protect the individuals rights there will need to be a means for the individual to transact in a relationship of trust as robust as the credit checks or proofs of identity needed today without generating a wider profile of their identity.
What is emerging is a global Data Services Industry sector, analogous to the global Financial Services Industry, which requires a universal infrastructure.
Increasingly there are
calls for a Bill of
Digital Rights
Numerous organisations are building proprietary highly-secure blockchain data infrastructures
eEstonia for the public sector
Smart Dubai for business
KYC for the banks’ customers
HAT (Hub of all Things) to manage personal data
Singapore’s national trade platform
This is reminiscent of the communications sector, prior to the Internet becoming ubiquitous.
What is required is a universal, highly- secure blockchain infrastructure where each individual, company or client has a unique identifier, a personal data repository and permissioned access control.
This universal infrastructure can then support the emerging Data Services Industry sector offering: retail, transactional Data Banking; wholesale investment and trading Data Banking; Insurance around the loss of data; compliance and regulation; legal services; charity and sponsorship etc.
A Data Services Industry’s universal infrastructure can enable enormous cross sector opportunity. There are a number of major social and economic drivers that arguably make this vision inevitable:
the growing social concerns around data privacy, anonymity and unethical use of personal data
increasing desire of individuals to benefit from their data rather than Facebook, Google and Amazon
growing political pressure in Europe to curb the power/excesses of US data companies the various Open (government) data initiatives
industry sectors such as finance seeking to automate transactions and reduce costs the uberisation of professional Services
growing problems of data security, hacking, and data breaches
pressure to legislate for citizens to have the right of access to their data
The most obvious driver is consumers recognising the value of their data and naturally wishing to exploit this for their personal benefit:
Privacy/security - consumers are increasingly concerned about the privacy, security and accessibility of their personal data, given the increasing number of high- profile data breaches
Custodians - commercial organisations storing consumer data have proved themselves poor custodians, leaving customers open to identity theft, financial loss and public embarrassment
Heterogeneity - Big Data analytics relies on access to increasingly large amounts of heterogeneous data
Monetisation - consumers increasingly recognise the commercial value of their personal data and resent companies exploiting this value, without benefit to them
Personalisation - online service platforms are moving from a company-centric to a customer-centric view of personal data. For example, eHealth services have introduced personal healthcare records
eGovernment - governments are using blockchain DLT technology to have a single e-Identifier and e-Repository for each citizen. Estonia’s e-Estonia is a pioneering example.
Open Access - governments are encouraging open data initiatives, making public sector data available online;
Legislation - Governments are legislating for consumers to automatically have right of access to their data. The European Commission is likely to champion this, against the US digital giants.
The proposed Data Services Industry eInfrastructure (if pursued commercially) will create the data equivalent of a sovereign wealth fund which can be exploited nationally for research and also for growing a new generation of elite data-driven start- ups.
The social genome will be a huge collection of ubiquitous personal data about members of society that is captured in ever-larger and ever-more complex datasets (e.g. government administrative data, commercial, operational data, social media data etc.).
Such a wealth of social and business data will be unique globally; hence the analogy with a sovereign wealth fund.
As discussed, underpinning the infrastructure are Data Vaults; highly secure data server facilities located in the centres of cities. This is necessary to provide the escalating data bandwidth requirements. Data vaults also address the Governments increasing concern about the control and security of our national data resources.
Such a
wealth of social and business data will be unique globally