Earlier this year, Siginicat reported that 40% of Brits had abandoned a banking on-boarding process. Interestingly, a significant portion of the same research participants cited length of time and the requirement to give up too much information as their primary reasons for abandonment.

With these processes often requiring physical identification, and taking an average of 18.45 minutes to complete, Meeco, the world’s first Life Management Platform, has begun collaborating with the financial services industry to solve this problem by leveraging open standards, Meeco’s platform capabilities, and customer-controlled personal data.

“Meeco is proving unique innovation around customer on-boarding and know-your-customer (KYC) capability, through provisioning the API-of-Me. This enables customers to bring their identity and (consent) based access management to enterprise, enabling the customer to consume products, services, advice and experiences in less time, with lower friction,” said Katryna Dow, founder and CEO of Meeco.

Australian version of use case video:

Verify ID

Within the simulated environment of Meeco’s Me2B Labs Methodology, Meeco is working with leading brands to showcase the business, human and ecosystem value of person-controlled personal data that is in context, accurate, real-time and matched with intention.

“This model enables our partners to work directly with customers, prove the value of such initiatives, and de-risk the pathway to market,” said Meeco’s Head of Experience and Labs, Nathan Kinch.

Meeco’s collaboration with leading global brands across various industry verticals results in a range of mutual benefits, including new value chains for enterprise, tailored outcomes for customers, lowering risk, increasing compliance, all resulting in net new value. Additionally, the direct relationship between the enterprise and the customer builds a private channel for ongoing permission marketing – a step in the right direction when considering the upcoming European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2).

Verify ID

As part of the MyData 2016 Conference in Helsinki, Meeco showcased this, and six other unique use cases to more than 500 attendees across the academic, corporate, government and entrepreneurial community.

For more, contact media.meeco@meeco.me

Personal data – among other data – has also become a valuable asset giving for instance companies insights into how people use services and thus being able to better understand how to tailor services to users but also how to target advertising to users of seemingly free services where people are typically granted access at zero monetary cost and users instead pay with the information they provide.

My Data principles require that each individual should be able to access data concerning him or her as well as to be able to determine who then has access to that data. In Finland, for example, one My Data initiative has been the Taltioni Health Account which aims to allow people to store their health data in one location. Data can be accessed and updated by different providers of health and well-being services while each individual retains control to their data and gains an overall view to their health based on data

At the EU level, data protection legislation has been reformed by introducing the new, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which replaces the Data Protection Directive already from 1995. The GDPR is set to take effect in 2018. The GDPR introduces the right to data portability, i.e. that each individual should be able to access data concerning him or her in a way that also enables them to make further use of that data in a meaningful way:

“The data subject shall have the right to receive the personal data concerning him or her, which he or she has provided to a controller, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from the controller to which the personal data have been provided…”:

In practice this means that for instance users of an online service should be able to access his or her personal data. However, for this legal framework to have practical effect, effective exercise of this right to data portability should also make it possible to transfer such data to another service, and this requires APIs, and data interoperability so that interfacing systems can exchange information also in practice. This in turn requires different industries to be able to establish common standards to facilitate this kind of interoperability.

Moreover, the ’right to be forgotten’ has been established by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2014 and subsequently introduced into European data protection legislation as part of the GDPR.  Article 17 (Right to erasure) of the GDPR provides that the data subject has the right to request erasure, such as delisting search results, of personal data related to him on any one of a number of grounds including non-compliance with article 6.1 (Lawfulness of processing) that includes a case (f) where the legitimate interests of the controller is overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data. In practice this could mean that for instance data which is either no longer relevant or is excessive should be erased.

At the moment, there are quite many open question about the actual effects of the implementation of the GDPR. While the GDPR provides a legal framework that supports the My Data approach to personal data, it should be secured that the My Data approach in the management and utilization of personal data could be achieved in a way that is supportive to the interests of all stakeholders affected by those processing activities. The progress of Taltioni and other My Data initiatives requires industry-wide cooperation, as discussed below e.g. regarding adopting common standards, as well as demand from consumer side meaning that people are willing to take control of data concerning them.

Text by

Lexia / Petteri Günther, Senior Associate, Attorney at Law and Markus Myhrberg, Partner, Attorney at Law

As a volunteer, you will be a vital part of the conference and will help create a welcoming and outstanding conference experience for over 300 participants from around the world. This is a valuable opportunity to gain knowledge and experience in the field of human centric data, attend an international conference, and obtain first hand experience in the organization of a high-level international dialogue in advancing human centric personal data.

In addition to having local supporters, we are also happy to have volunteers from abroad fly off to Helsinki to purely help to make it great event. Here is the shout out from Michele Invernizzi, Communications Design maverick from Italy.

What interests you in MyData topic?

There are a few topics that interest me quite a lot right now, especially in terms of the collection and analysis of people’s data: the need for a more evenly balanced control over our own data; the importance of having an active conversation with policymakers for better and up-to-date regulations that could both ensure our human digital rights as well as create a rich and fertile environment for companies to advance and improve our world; last but not least, the need to design tools, initiatives, practices, etc… so that we can inform people, making them know and care about those issues, because that’s the only way we can start conversations and promote change.

Could you describe what place big data holds in your field of Communications Design?

As a communication and information designer, I’m very interested in designing visual models that work well when it comes to represent big data sets, making them accessible and easy to understand for users. There is also an ethical perspective: I believe that as professionals we have to give something back to society, to make it better with our knowledge in some way. Designing something to create awareness and foster debate about the issue of personal data is a good place to start in my opinion.

What are some examples of your daily routine that involves data?

I specialize in information design and data visualization, so I get to work with data a lot in my daily life. I also just started to work on my M.Sc. thesis and my focus is exactly on privacy, data transparency and data policy, so I’m very excited to come to Helsinki and get to know so many interesting people!

MyData refers to human-centric ways of organizing personal data. MyData is not a business or a product; it’s a conceptual framework. Data has become increasingly valued as a business resource. Meanwhile concern over privacy raises questions and the fragmentation of data poses challenges for its effective utilization.

MyData tackles these challenges by putting the individual in control of his or her own data. In this model, organizations grant individuals access to their own data in a machine-readable form. This allows the individuals to utilize their personal data as they see fit. This data can be shared, exchanged or perhaps even sold to other services by the individual or with his permission. Thus the MyData-model could enable the creation of entirely new business models.

To understand what MyData is we have to understand the present situation. Currently a large number of different organizations collect data from us. These include social media platforms, search engines, retail companies, healthcare providers and so on. This process is often opaque and happens behind our backs; we usually neither know what kind of data is being collected nor the value of the data that we give away. In fact, World Economic Forum has estimated that the utilization of personal data is going to be one of the most significant business trends.

Many are unsatisfied with the situation and wish to see more transparent ways of data gathering that would respect privacy. Some have even suggested that no data should be collected at all. But is this viable or even desirable?

The benefits of MyData will be wide, but it needs to be used in fair ways. The individual needs to be in control and be able to benefit from the utilization of his or her data. Humans should not be reduced into business subjects or cogs in a system.

Benefits of MyData

The utilization of personal data holds great potential for individuals, organizations and the society at large.

Individuals would benefit among other things from data-based feedback systems, improved privacy, easily transferable data and services, better recommendation systems and equality of information. MyData-principles would make it easier to understand and manage information gathered from the individual. Access to data would be more transparent and people could choose to utilize their information in ways that suit them.

MyData could create entirely new business opportunities but also established companies could benefit from it. These benefits include greater trust from customers, a more open business environment, reduced transaction costs and easier ways to fulfill privacy obligations. MyData would also help against the winner-takes all-phenomenon where many services die out because their user base never reaches a critical mass.

Because MyData-services would be compatible with each other it would allow easier data transfer and allow companies to draw benefits from user data with a smaller user base.

MyData could have significant social effects. MyData could allow individuals to make more sustainable, healthier and ethical choices when choosing their purchases. This could have positive impact on the society as a whole. MyData would allow human rights and information technology to develop side my side and create a more sustainable basis for developing data-driven technologies. It could help us to avoid monopolistic worst-case scenarios when developing future society.

MyData is very much a work in progress. It’s a globally developing phenomenon, a scenario for future around which business and technology is being developed. As of now there are no unified ways or open standards for handling personal information. Many questions regarding the technology, organization and principles of MyData are still open.

And it’s precisely because the future is still open that we are inviting you to come with us and create new world with MyData!

Personal Data is important to us all – NOW. It should be important for you – your angle might be for example privacy, efficiency, new business or just personal control. We’re sure the developer community has some awesome ideas to demonstrate how personal data can be used in an ethical and human-centric way – in accordance with the MyData principles.

As MyData is still in very early phases, that’s exactly why the goal of the hack is to get concrete examples, prototypes and concepts based on MyData. More understanding!

We want to know how one can, for example, combine wellness/health data to one dashboard, how can we analyze our shopping and/or finance data from various sources, what does our media consumption tell about us, how can we make transportation easier and more personalized, how can we simplify public services so we don’t fill the same forms over and over again – and so on. How can we – as users – benefit from the personal data we produce.

The MyData 2016 hackathon takes place on 30 Aug – 1 Sep. Stop reading, and register NOW for the hack, if you’re as excited as we are.

2016 is the year of MyData. Open Knowledge Finland is all about the free flow of information. Open data, open knowledge, open collaboration – and, we believe, free (user-controlled) flow of personal information. These are tools not only to build more transparent societies – but also effective services and new business in the digital domain.

MyData represents the BIGGEST concentration of effort for us this year. In particular, Open Knowledge Finland key actions for the fall of 2016 are geared towards the MyData 2016 conference (31 Aug – 2 Sep) and the Ultrahack MyData hackathon running in parallel with that – with the Ultrahack Main Event (25 – 27 Nov) as the other key community event later in the year.

Cool stuff to hack. Even though the upcoming EU GDPR and other legislation will force organizations to provide you access to your personal data in a digital format, most data is not in such formats YET – but there are some really interesting datasets, APIs and supporting technologies to help you, from our partners in Transportation, Public Services, Finance, Retail and Health & Wellbeing sectors.

Resources you can use include HSL Citybikes data, Yle Tunnus data (what you’ve read/watched), S Group synthesized shopping data,  OP Financial Group/Open Bank Project bank transaction data, National Architecture for Digital Services (KaPa), IBM Watson/Bluemix and many others.

However, you do not need to be confined to these themes or technologies – be creative! For example, there’s been a lot of talk joining MyData with the ah-so-hot blockchain – why not conceptualize or develop something based on this?

Be a game-changer – for a better, data-driven world. The very best teams will be on the main stage on Friday, pitching to the conference audience – with people from some 25 countries in attendance. As a support to developers, we are awarding some 10 000 eur in prizes. All hackers get free access to the MyData 2016 conference, to get an inspiring break when needed. Above all, you are showing the MyData community concrete examples that will influence the development of ethical, human centric use of personal data.

Take it further – is the world ready to invest? Ultrahack MyData is one of event in the Ultrahack 2016 Tournament. The best teams from this MyData hackathon get access to the Ultrahack Main Event where you can continue your work! There you compete for over 1 million euros in investments and some 200k euros in prizes. It’s on 25-27 November, just before Slush. Wow, do we wanna see some MyData teams rock there!

You will want to follow/visit some of these:

• Register for Ultrahack MyData: https://ultrahack.org/mydata2016
• MyData Ultrahack website w/ more info (being updated): http://mydata2016.org/ultrahack/
• Join the event on Facebook and show that you are coming to the hackathon: https://www.facebook.com/events/1754797534732053/

Other practicalities

BTW, to make things affordable, there will be a possibility to catch some sleep in hacker spirit, get extra food in off-hours and public transport tickets for 5 days. Just get yourself to Helsinki!

Let’s do it! We certainly hope to see a wide range of experts at the hack, at the conf. Let’s get hacking and build some new human-centric awesomeness into this world!  

Daring, sharing, caring!

-Teemu

The founder and president of Open Knowledge, Rufus Pollock, had an interview with Molly from Open Knowledge Finland.

“MyData is an initiative born from the Finnish chapter of Open Knowledge (OKFFI), how do you feel about that?”

It’s inspirational and satisfying. Not just personally – it’s just wonderful to see how things flourish. OKFFI have been an incredibly active Chapter and for Finland, as a place, I feel like it’s a wise society, trying things out and they have good in-depth knowledge. Somehow there is not a lot of ego, the Finns are curious to learn and try things out. I actually think that deep down they are incredibly innovative. The whole topic of MyData is a huge issue, with a lot of connections to open data, even though it’s distinct thing. I think it’s only natural that a chapter of Open Knowledge is taking on and looking at it.

“I like the fact that you pointed out that the concept of personal data is distinct, but inevitably tied to the broader questions of open data! What will you speak about and what you wait to hear from other people?”

Obviously I know about data, and the questions going around privacy. Something I’m not expert at are the policy issues and what are the current big issues. I’m also very interested to see what the business is looking at. I want to hear discussion how people can innovate in this space, provide opportunity for people to use personal data different ways, in all kinds of areas. How to do it so that it respects and preserves people’s privacy? I’m not only waiting for policy and business side, but also the society and research side, there clearly is a lot of value coming from researchers. Think of healthcare and genomic data not only coming from individuals but from a wider population.

Generally, Open Knowledge is on a journey, on the policy side, to make sure that this incredible information revolution or digital revolution, which means that we are living in a world of bits, that the world of bits works for everyone. Rather than delivering more inequality and exploitation, which it can easily do, it delivers fairness and empowerment. It brings freedom rather than manipulation.

That doesn’t limit to the data sessions that can be opened, those data sets you can easily share with anyone. As a metaphor, the double-sided coin, where you have on one side public data or government data – the data open for everyone, and on the flip side there is your personal data, which you should be choosing how to share and how it’s used. Just like with open data, people should have freedom to access, share and use whatever data is made open. With MyData, you should be able to do the same, as you fit, and right now it’s not the case. It leads to the abuse of the system, but also stops innovations and stops people from being empowered.

Open Data and MyData are interconnected in people’s minds, nobody cares only for the other, but they care how this digital information is going to work, how it’s going to be managed – how the world is going to be managed. We in open knowledge want to see the people to be empowered in the information age, and one thing is that you should be empowered with the information about you.

Openness isn’t an end in itself, information is to be used as a service to empower people, to help them innovate, to learn, to discover, to earn a living and that idea of empowerment is a common thread in both access to personal MyData and the access to public data for everyone.”

Rufus is looking forward to return to Finland having run the Open Knowledge Festival in 2012. He warmly invites people to join the MyData Conference at the end this month!

During those 5 years, we explored, we analyzed, we experimented (a 300 users experiment, the first of its kind), we collaborated with our international peers, we produced knowledge on the usage, the architecture, the challenges of such a paradigm shift in a digital economy which is mostly based on business models such as tracking people and using (or even selling) their data for the sole gain of the company.

Obviously we don’t do it alone! Our partners (private organizations – banks, insurance providers, retailer, telecommunications giant, energy providers, … – and the public sector) and a whole ecosystem of startups, researchers, schools, developers, collectives, and many and varied “partners-in-crime” are on the journey with us.

In 2016, it’s not only about the journey anymore, it’s about the destination. We need to take actions so that the Self Data scenario arise from paper and experiments into reality. That’s why we are starting the MesInfos Pilot – as we described it in our last post, to gather organizations holding personal data, platforms, a territory, and an innovation ecosystem to pave the way for a concrete Self Data world (in which organizations are giving back data to their clients under no time limits).

Self Data principles are on the march – in the strategy of pioneer organizations and in the public agenda – the international event Mydata 2016 will embody that dynamic. All of us might not call it Self Data, but the goal we agree on is the same. This is the right time to claim those principles in a loud and clear voice and to open them through the Self Data Charter.

Those signing the charter agree on a common “Self Data story”: roles (users, data controllers, platforms, reusers); the importance of protection and control of personal data (regulations, consent, security, …); empowered individuals (informational self-determination, use value, data literacy, portability, …).

This charter is a tool for the MesInfos Pilote and for everyone who feels like us, to lay the principles of this iconoclastic scenario that tries to rebuild the relationship between individuals and organizations on a more equal basis. We can’t wait to hear what you have to say about those principles in Helsinki at Mydata 2016!

Open and download the Shelf Data Charter here

Text by:
Marine Albarede and Manon Molins
Fing

One thing that public government knows how to do is collect data on its citizens. From your tax and health records to whether you are licensed to drive a car, national and local officials possess massive amounts of personal data on each and every one of us. Unfortunately, that data is currently kept under the lid, siloed in the information systems of every individual public body. Personal data does not travel smoothly between public organizations (often it does not travel at all), nor is it possible for a citizen to give a third party access to her/his data.

However, things are changing. We at the National Architecture for Digital Services (KaPA) are currently building up a digital infrastructure (based on X-Road) which offers a standardised way to transfer information between organisations, enabling the building of safe service entities for citizens, businesses, and authorities called the Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer. Furthermore, this layer has the potential to enable Finnish people to manage their own personal data stored in the information systems of public organisations in accordance with MyData ideals by making it technically easier.

KaPA on a mission – innovate with us in Ultrahack MyData

Our work is not ready yet. However, the potential power of the Data Exchange Layer coupled with the idea of personal data management is, of course, enormous. Just imagine what kind of services could be innovated if we were given the choice of sharing our own data, collected by public officials, to third parties. At the Personal Data Hackathon, that is exactly what we want you to do. As the Event Partner of the Personal Data Hackathon, we challenge hackathon teams to conceptualize innovative ways to make use of personal data originating from the public sector.

We want the participating teams to concentrate on service design and innovative ideas. That is why our hackathon challenge is a conceptual one –hardcore coding skills are by no means necessary. We want you to present us with a service concept that is user-centered and makes personal data management effortless and transparent.

As a resource we will provide the teams with a listing of potentially interesting national data registers. This, by the way, has been the biggest obstacle as we have bounced around ideas about what our challenge is all about. No comprehensive listing of all registers and information systems containing citizens’ personal data in some form or another exists. Thus we are currently compiling one, by hand.

At its most fundamental level, a hackathon is a form of creative problem-solving. In a hack, you are given some rough guidelines on how to solve the given problem, yet for the most part you are free to do whatever you like. It’s a very different way of working than what the public sector bodies are used to. As a joint campaign by a number of public officials has shown, public purchasing processes, for example, do not leave much space for innovation, when the tools, methods, and end results are strictly prescribed beforehand. We at KaPA, on the other hand, are committed to more agile working methods and creative thinking. That is why we want to explore the possibilities of MyData within the public sector by partnering with the Personal Data Hackathon.

Looking forward to seeing you all in August!

the KaPA Team

Preregistering for the Hackathon ends at midnight of July 31st. 

See Supporters highlighted here and Sponsors highlighted here.

TeliaSonera is a company formed from two national telecom agencies, Telia (Sweden) and Sonera (Finland) in 2002. Nowadays TeliaSonera is the fifth largest telecom operator in Europe and continues building on its pioneering spirit and high technology expertise within both fixed and mobile communications inherited from its predecessors.

The digital society is a global movement. By being connected, people all over the world can explore, invent and share. And this is Sonera’s business and passion. Everything they do is about bringing the world closer through technology.

Tekes is an innovation funding center that provides funding for challenging research projects in companies, universities and research institutes. Tekes helps companies turn promising ideas into viable business by providing funding and specialist services. Innovations helps to renew the Finnish society and economy, and Tekes helps these innovations come true.

Suomi.fi is a one-stop portal for Finnish public sector online services for citizens. The portal contains links to sites that provide information and services for citizens. These sites are produced by state and local government organisations, municipalities, nationally operating NGO’s and certain private companies.

Suomi.fi gives information for anyone who needs to transact with Finland’s public administration, regardless of whether they reside in Finland or abroad. The portal includes texts, service information, e-services and forms. Suomi.fi is available in Finnish, Swedish and English.

Cozy is a personal private cloud and app platform which offers a great variety of apps while respecting the user’s privacy. The creators of Cozy wish to create an universal tool which can help you to organise your life and make you more productive by automating tasks. It will act as your own personal assistant, providing the information you’re looking for and offering advice when you need it. Cozy will be of use to both individual users and certain businesses as a solid foundation for building a vendor-neutral cloud platform

Meeco is a new service to help you manage life and all your important digital relationships. It allows you to add, organise, edit and securely share all your information. Meeco is your home to a growing collection of apps (called boards) that give you access to your suite of privacy, browsing and personal analytics experiences.

You personally curate all boards, which makes your Meeco experience totally unique. Your activity, preferences and profile data is securely synced between all of your devices, and of course anything stored by Meeco is encrypted.

Meeco is designed to be an easy part of your daily routine. Every time you use Meeco to pay your bills, search the web or signal your intentions you are reducing your digital footprint and building a richer personal profile where you are in control

Liikennevirasto (Finnish Transport Agency) enables smooth, efficient and safe travel and transport. They are responsible for Finland’s roads, railways and waterways and for the development of Finland’s transport system. The Finnish Transport Agency strives to act in a responsible, effective and innovative way to optimise the effectiveness of the transport system, improve traffic safety and enhance sustainable development in all regions. Our experts develop services to facilitate travel and transport, thus promoting the development of a well-functioning society. It is their responsibility to maintain the high quality of Finnish infrastructure, which in its turn enables mobility services, robotisation and digitalisation.

Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) is a joint local authority whose member municipalities are Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, Kerava, Kirkkonummi and Sipoo. HSL began its operations in 2010. HSL is responsible for public transportation in the Helsinki metropolitan area. HSL plans and organises public transport in the region and improves its operating conditions. Some 345 million journeys are made on HSL’s transport services annually. HSL’s vision is that in 2025 public transport is number one choice for travel. “HSL moves us all.”

Fing is a French non-profit organization, which focus on digital uses and digital transformations. We are both a think tank & a do-tank. We intend to produce new and actionable ideas, for public & private sectors, non profit, innovators, researchers…

For several years, Fing has been exploring the issue of trust. The main learning of these studies is that there is a deep trust crisis between the individuals and the organizations. And the way Digital economy is evolving is worsening this crisis: big organizations are collecting more and more data, processing them thanks to powerful tools, while their customers derive no value from this situation.

In 2012, we decided to launch the MesInfos project, based on the idea that the value of personal data should be shared between the organizations and their customers.

We gathered public and private partners to explore what we call Self Data: the ability for the individuals to collect, store, understand, use their personal data and share it with some third-party players – if they are willing to – under their complete control. We convinced them to hand back personal data to their customers, during the 8-months experiment we led in 2013.

2013-2014: a first experiment

300 testers received their personal data (bank, telco, insurance, retail data…) from 6 big companies. Each one could store this data on his/her own data platform (provided by a French personal cloud startup, CozyCloud); he/she could also use his/her own data thanks to 15 third-party services, prototyped by startups, developers, designers, students…  (+50 concepts were also scenarized during these 8 months). For instance, one service enable them to get their weekly/monthly CO2 emissions based on their food consumption. Another one was a smart Personal Finance Manager, while a third one enabled users to get a monthly personal report based on fun facts drawn from their data…

“What the heck can you do with your data?”

We learnt a lot from this experiment! One of the main findings is that giving back personal data does play a part in rebuilding relationships based on trust between organizations and their customers. We started to explore the use value of personal data for individuals, but this is just a beginning. This value can probably be huge. For organizations, handing back personal data is a wide, big, long-term project: Information Systems are not built to share data with the customers, and it’s probably going to take time. But this is precisely the main interest of taking part in this kind of experiment: it’s the best way to gain an advance for all players.

2016, a new step: MesInfos Pilote

That’s why in 2016, we decided to do it again, but for real this time (we call it MesInfos pilote): with more organizations, more testers. more services… and with no time limit! One of the main goals of this pilote is to give birth to new uses/services, new business models, new relationships. In november 2016 a first group of “early adopters” will have access to their personal data (telco, insurance, energy, bank data…) and be able to use it through their own platform (for now Cozy, but we hope other platforms will join in 2017). A second “batch” will get theirs in February, 2017. A whole team of researchers will participate in this pilot. And of course, we’re sharing insights, learnings and experiences with similar projects over Europe. We hope to learn a lot but also to start a long-term dynamic, creating a world in which individuals will be able to access and use their data however it pleases them!

The pilote is still open to whoever is interested, as long as players (big companies, public actors, startups, data platforms….) agree with the Self Data principles in our Charter (it’s our next post!). The Mydata 2016 event will be the perfect opportunity for all of us to discuss how to collaborate on this opportunity!
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