Communications of the ACM
Open Data Initiative Moves Into the World of Consumers' Personal Data
"This is about getting the information that companies hold about me and you back to you in a form you can use," says University of Southampton professor Nigel Shadbolt.
Credit: Courtesy of University of Southampton
The Open Data initiative has launched a project in Britain to assist businesses in returning personal data to consumers.
Twenty-six companies have joined the Midata project, which will provide consumers with personal data inventories that contain information about their personal consumption and spending patterns. "This is about getting the information that companies hold about me and you back to you in a form you can use," says University of Southampton professor Nigel Shadbolt.
The companies agreed to seek common approaches to data access, and to jointly establish protocols for privacy, data security, and consumer protection. Technologies such as apps will be used to link data in a way to provide consumers with new insights into information and to enable them to make comparisons.
"At the moment we're used to seeing our buying preferences from online bookstores recommend books back to us and we can share our preferences with friends and social networks--this kind of facility is going to happen everywhere," Shadbolt says. "But the government also holds large amounts of information about us, and I'd like to see us move to a situation where our health, education, and tax information is just as accessible."
From University of Southampton (United Kingdom)
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