MyData 2016 Speaker Interview: Peter Vander Auwera

“I think a personal data store where we only have control over the data we consciously share with others is not good enough.”

Interview Transcript

Molly Schwartz: Hi everybody, this is Molly Schwartz again, one of the researchers at MyData, talking right now to Peter Vander Auwera, one of the co-founders of Innotribe, who will be one of our speakers at MyData 2016. So hi Peter, could you go ahead and introduce yourself?

Peter Vander Auwera: Hi Molly, thanks for having me. Yes, my name is Peter, known as Petervan. And I’m a independent thinker, creator, and sense-maker. That’s a mouthful. My main background related to this event is I have been infected by the digital identity virus way back in the early 2000s, when Belgium was launching its electronic identity card and I was part of a strategic Microsoft project looking at what Microsoft could do with this sort of digital identity across its different product lines, a project for which I got the chairman award at Microsoft, the Bill Gates award. And then I have moved on in different directions. I have become a World Economic Forum personal data expert member. At Swift, my current employer, I have led quite significant incubation project called the Digital Assets Grid, which was in essence an elaboration on Doc Searls’ VRM thinking, vendor relationship management thinking. I’ve been involved in hackathon projects, I’m an advisor and investor in a number of ventures, in a number of funds. And I’m very much looking forward to speak at MyData 2016 in Helsinki.

MS: Excellent, we’re really looking forward to having you. I think your expertise will bring a lot to the table. So, why do you think it’s important to have an event like MyData 2016 now? What kind of thing are you looking forward to getting from coming?

PV: I think it’s very important to have an event like MyData 2016 especially in the context of the whole surveillance economy. And it’s not only surveillance by governments, but also by corporates, corporations. We have since a couple of years some dreams, some ideas of how we could solve this problem through personal data stores or personal data management systems. I think we have to look at something else, I don’t know what that else is, but I think a personal data store where we only have control over the data we consciously share with others is not good enough. My main topic will be around the illusion of agency, or to put it in a positive way, how we can get real agency back in our interactions with others. And I’m looking forward at the event to find partners-in-crime to start thinking around a number of data ethics, standards, and norms, for personal and other data sharing use cases.

MS: Yeah, great, that’s excellent, I’m very optimistic that there will be other data ethics partners-in-crime at the event. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today and we will see you in Helsinki!

PV: My pleasure Molly. Thank you.