A human in the data space

The Data universe is expanding with an accelerating speed due to the vast amount of data that mobile devices and applications are creating. Often we are making a digital footprint in situations where  we don’t intuitively understand that our data is being saved. The competition for who gets to be the fixed star of the data space is based on selling the data, for example the business model of Google. The value of personal information is on the rise.

What if I could decide myself how I share my data (MyData) with the services I trust? The quality and quantity of services may increase when data gets mashed up in new ways. For example my activity tracker data could be linked to my health records, my grocery shopping habits, my exercise history, health data of my peers or maybe enriched with air quality data to help select my running path. It is now time to let the individual decide the applications for their data.

Self-preservation is a very much needed instinct on the age of data. We all should use applications made for helping with the data security. For example, MyGeoTrust – project tools help people to control  their privacy to  the appropriate level by the service requesting location  information. We want to intensify and transform the way how personal data is now being used in business. That change needs both know-how, rules and organizations that can handle the personal data for others. We also need cooperation to give birth to solutions that work together.

As a Finnish Government key project we develop the human centric way of data management together with businesses, academia and administration as a MyData Alliance. The Finnish Government gave a decision in May 2016 on the activities that will create suitable conditions to use MyData.

The vision is to create data ecosystem in where the humans, individuals, are the brightest  stars. We will create an environment for services and business to grow. In the data economy, there are an unlimited amount of actors and relationships between different actors. We need trust, business models, testing, evaluation of regulations and resources. We need models where the data of the individual, with the consent of the individual, transforms into services.

Together we can move forward. Between 30th August and 2nd September, we gather in Helsinki as an international group to discuss about the MyData ecosystem. Welcome to build a world where the human as at the centre and surrounded by orbiting dataservices.

Taru Rastas
Senior Adviser
Data Business Unit
Data Department
Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications

Originally published in Finnish at https://impulssi.lvm.fi/2016/07/06/ihminen-data-avaruudessa/

Translation done by the MyData 2016 team