The World Economic Forum (WEF) has published its latest iteration on personal data; a report by BCG called Rethinking Personal Data: Strengthening Trust.
WEF activity in this area helps the whole agenda. Even if you don’t understand what WEF does or to whom it sees itself as accountable, its work is not easily dismissed. The BGC report’s problem analysis represents progress on last year’s report by Bain. It focusses on the deficit of trust, sets out why digital data differs from other assets, acknowledges the risk downside of proliferating big data and analyses the draft new EU data protection rules.
Significantly, it acknowledges the powerful driver of “volunteered personal information” originally set out by our colleague Alan Mitchell and others at Ctrl-Shift. We at Mydex see that as the economic mainspring for the new personal data ecosystem.
Of course we welcome the WEF report. It defines accurately and precisely the problems we at Mydex and others seek to solve. It was a pleasure to be involved and we thank WEF for the acknowledgement. But there’s a wider perspective to be had, and more specific work to do.
Perhaps it’s hard for WEF to shake off the large-corporate telecoms sector genesis of this line of work. The personal data issue isn’t just about sharing wealth equally among all stakeholders. It’s about human dignity. Doc Searls’ new book The Intention Economy is an altogether more human, credible and therefore powerful exposition of the problem. Perhaps it should have been acknowledged.
It’s one of those reports which poses questions and suggests further dialogue. The three priority areas are: protection & security, rights and responsibilities; and accountability & enforcement. But we at Mydex, and our emerging counterparts around the world, tackle precisely these central issues. We believe we offer substantive answers.
Mydex and firms like Personal, Qiy, Sing.ly know we need to solve these effectively and furthermore provide an effective dimension of collaboration — on standards and interoperability — to make this work. We’ll evolve fast. We’ll learn from each others’ achievements and mistakes.
At the heart, the WEF authors aren’t yet convinced Mydex and others like us can do what we set out to do. But we are. And we will do it, even if it takes a little luck and a little help from our friends.
The WEF argues it’s time for further dialogue. We think it’s time for getting on with it, so that’s what we’re doing. That said, well done Bill, Karl and the team. Like Personal, we’re happy to remain in dialogue as we do so: with WEF, with our counterparts and with all actors in this.
