Whose data is it anyway?

Remember the last time you walked into a new doctor’s office and spent 30 minutes filling out form after form while realizing you didn’t have or remember half of the information they wanted? Questions about past surgeries, prior medications, allergies, etc.? Maybe not an ordeal — until it’s the ordeal.

In November of 2013, I began to wake from my medically induced coma (long story). With another 3 emergencies to come at 2 different hospitals, I quickly discovered that these simple forms became an enormous burden. With every new doctor wanting my medical records I quickly found myself on the phone with person after person promising faxes that never came and when I finally got the information, I had to do it all over again and I couldn’t understand my own forms.

So here we are in a digital age, and yet I didn’t have easy access to my records, I couldn’t share my medical history when or how I wanted, and I had no idea what was happening with my very personal health data. This didn’t and doesn’t sit well with me.

So the question became, doesn’t that apply to every kind of data I generate?

And the answer is yes, yes it does.

We generate mass amounts of data with every click, swipe, scroll, purchase, breathe, heartbeat, run, or rest. As a result, a complex data economy has been created behind the scenes to trade, sell, and analyze information taken without your consent.

Initially, the intent was to provide value to advertisers, while creating more relevant content for consumers, a model initially implemented by Amazon to analyze purchasing behaviors and extrapolate the data into likely future purchases. Now, companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Twitter build products with the sole intent to learn about us both on and off their websites. Data brokers like Acxiom, Nielsen, Experian, and Equifax roam free collectively racking in hundreds of billions of dollars made off of your personal data.

So in short — data has given power to technology monopolies and data brokers at your expense as they use and abuse your data. Creepy, yes! Unfair, also yes! Profitable, absolutely!

What could we do if the power of data was in our hands and in our complete control? If we could protect our raw, sensitive data and choose monetize insights companies want for our own profit?

Now you can put your data to work and earn a basic income with UBDI.

UBDI stands for “universal basic data income,” because we believe individuals should be able to put their anonymous data to work and earn a basic income.

We are creating a community of individuals, developers and companies who are changing how data is collected and monetized, allowing people to profit from sharing trends and insights from their anonymous data in the $50 billion global industry of market research reeling from consumer and regulatory concerns about privacy and exploitation of user data.

UBDI Design: Trust in Architecture

Monetizing data is a tricky business. The shift from exploitive business models to allowing you to monetize your data is naturally appealing, but needs to be built with trust in architecture not some new Zuckerberg that comes along lying to your face about empowerment to make a buck. UBDI is being created to make sure we build a better digital world — one that doesn’t rely on the words of a company, but instead one that is built from the ground up with checks and balances and secure measures to protect and respect your privacy and choices.

With the right partnerships, I am turning the future I want for my data and the data of my friends and family into a reality.

1. I want one place to easily view all of my data.
2. I want the be the only one with access to my data so I control of where this data goes and how it’s used.
3. I want to be able to make money off of my data, but still want my data to be protected.
4. I want to be able transport data I select from one place to another.
5. I want to be able to use apps without having my every move be watched and collected.

So here’s a small taste of how our UBDI app will work, when launched this spring!

UBDI has partnered with digi.me, a private data sharing platform that allows you to securely import and store encrypted data from over 15,000 different sources without seeing, touching, or holding your data. Cause that’s the way it should be — 100% in your and only your control.

This data is secured, encrypted, and decentralized on your device so when you choose to share this data with apps, you’ll get a transparent consent contract. This way you’ll know exactly what is happening with your data and how its being used when apps, including UBDI, want to access any type of data on your behalf.

You’ll be provided with market research opportunities on our UBDI app from paying companies so you can get paid for sharing insights from your anonymized data whether it be from purchases, financial transactions, entertainment preferences, social media accounts, medical history, wearables, or other data sources. We pay you in our revenue-backed digital currency, UBDI, that gives you your share in the ongoing profits generated from the entire community’s data. You’ll be able to exchange UBDI for cash or hold it as an investment that can grow overtime.

So what does “insights” mean? If a company wants to know how much was spent at Starbucks last week, they don’t need everyone’s transaction history, we will scan consented and linked financial cards — $100 for you, ya caffeine enthusiast, $3.50 for her, and $7.50 for that other guy — wallah we add them up and send a number or insight while keeping your actual data safe with you.

We don’t want to know about you personally — just people like you. Do people who run more than five miles a day, listen to Post Malone, and spend 2 hours on instagram spend more on shoes? No idea… yet!

Let’s not stop there. You’ll soon be able to choose between privately sharing data from your digi.me data vault or participate in a revenue- share with developers in UBDI generating more income streams for simply using apps you would use anyway. For example, you could privately share your location with a navigation app or opt in insights about the numbers of people on highways and local streets for urban planning and development and split the revenue between the developers and you.

It’s time we put our data to work and earn the basic income we deserve.

Stay tuned as we dig into market research, data practices, architecture, digital currency, more!