Noteworthy Information

Individuals Simple read

Greenwash

Greenwash and Greenwashing: A look at the claims of government and big business showing how they manipulate the truth and mislead us with false and unverifiable claims.

Individuals Advanced read

Personal Data Gentrification (Paper, 9p)

Individuals have undergone a process of Personal Data Gentrification, as data ownership has shifted from individuals to service providers and data consumers, as if the data is worth nothing to the individuals; these new owners then harness the data to obtain large profits. In this paper, we propose Personal Data Enfranchisement as a middle ground, empowering individuals to control the sharing of their personal information to shift the business flows of personal information. Based on these insights, we propose a model to gradually and incrementally make a shift from our current situation towards one of Personal Data Enfranchisement.

Individuals Simple read

Exercise your digital rights and find out what your data is used for

Your data is more valuable than you might think. You have the right to know how your data is used. Get started by asking five questions of the companies whose digital services you use.

Business & Government Intermediate read

Certified B Corporation

Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.

Individuals Simple read

Turn it around – could businesses sell data to consumers?

Thousands of companies buy and sell consumer data with other companies. Most recently, hundreds of business plans have been prepared, which essentially revolve around the idea of consumers selling their own data to monetize it. Probably neither of these models is a sustainable business. But what about consumers starting to pursue data from companies and public sources? Could it turn the perspective around?

Business & Government Intermediate read

Britain tamed Big Tech and nobody noticed

The Age Appropriate Design Code – now the Children’s Code – has caused huge global changes. Not that tech platforms want to admit it.

Individuals Simple read

Data privacy is a growing concern for more consumers

People surveyed by KPMG reported feeling increasingly uneasy about the data collection practices of corporations.

Individuals Simple read

Data Brokers Know Where You Are—and Want to Sell That Intel

From location tracking to federal law: These firms could track whether you've visited your therapist's office or your ex's house. And without regulation, they're a threat to democracy.

[Intermediate] Me2B Relationships and Me2B Deals

There currently isn’t an adequate vocabulary to describe people’s experiences in the digital world, which impedes understanding and conversations around what’s actually happening, and what harms are lurking. The Me2B Alliance has developed a set of terms to help bridge this gap. Central to the vocabulary is the concept of Me2B Relationships, which are the relationships people (Me’s) have with purveyors of products or services (B’s), and the concept of Me2B Deals, which are exchanges of value between a person (Me’s) and a business (“B”).

[Intermediate] Community-as-a-Service: A Business Model for the 21st Century

How communities generate value and how content creators are profiting from it.

[Intermediate] Cash investigation - Our personal data is worth gold! (Video in French)

Big scandal in France around personal data use in the context of health. Pharmacists are selling without consent data of their clients (for 6 EUR/month for the entire shop!) to an entity that is supposed to act in the public interest, but seems to be engaged in marketing as well.

[Simple] Monetising Personal Data in Dragons' Den (Video: 9:56m)

Great pitching skills and interesting pointer's of valuation and business models for personal data.

[Intermediate] Big Tech’s guide to talking about AI ethics

The tech giants have developed a new vocabulary to use when they want to assure the public that they care deeply about developing AI responsibly—but want to make sure they don’t invite too much scrutiny. Here’s an insider’s guide to decoding their language and challenging the assumptions and values baked in.

[Advanced] Mapping Career Causeways User Guide

Nesta’s Mapping Career Causeways project, supported by J.P. Morgan, applies state-of-the-art data science methods to create an algorithm that recommends job transitions and retraining to workers, with a focus on supporting those at high risk of automation.

[Intermediate] Your digital identity has three layers, and you can only protect one of them

Your online profile is less a reflection of you than a caricature. It is shaped by technology companies and advertisers who make key decisions based on their interpretation of seemingly benign data points.

[Simple] Data Privacy in the Crosshairs

But how do Americans feel about data privacy? According to Pew Research, they do not trust governments and companies to do the right thing with data. A 2019 survey found 81% of people feel they have very little or no control over data collected by companies, while 84% felt the same about government.

[Simple] Tech giants join China as superpowers calling the shots

Australia is presently embroiled in two major showdowns with superpowers. One is with China. The other is with Google and Facebook.

[Advanced] Citizen led public services

New technologies empower citizens to impact society on an unprecedented scale. Yet the technological innovation environment, in its current form, mainly brings in profits for private companies rather than society’s benefit. While promising social innovations exist, they struggle to reach a critical mass that can match the scale of society’s challenges.

[Intermediate] A New Paradigm for Business of Data

The World Economic Forum captures in this paper replicable learnings and practices from organizations leading the way in ushering in a new business paradigm for data that empowers stakeholders, is grounded in ecosystem partnerships and creates sustainable value for all. It provides a starting point for an ongoing programme to develop new playbooks for executive action and share lighthouse innovations.

[Advanced] GLEIF Advances Digital Trust and Identity for Legal Entities Globally

Following a series of 2020 research initiatives, GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation) has invited stakeholders from across the digital economy to engage in a cross industry development program to create an ecosystem and credential governance framework, together with a technical supporting infrastructure, for a verifiable LEI (vLEI - verifiable Legal Entity Identifier), a digitally verifiable credential containing the LEI.

[Simple] Tech giants may face billions of pounds in fines from new UK watchdog

Competition regulator wants Digital Markets Unit to have power to levy huge penalties if firms abuse code of conduct

Slack sold to business software giant for $27.7bn

Salesforce has agreed to buy workplace messaging app Slack for $27.7bn (€22.3bn) in what would be one of the biggest tech mergers in recent years.

Logged out: Ownership, exclusion and public value in the digital data and information commons

Abstract: In recent years, critical scholarship has drawn attention to increasing power differentials between corporations that use data and people whose data is used. A growing number of scholars see digital data and information commons as a way to counteract this asymmetry. In this paper I raise two concerns with this argument.

Getting Value with User-Held Data

User-centric data model opens new opportunities with data, and opens the gate for creativity and innovation in this space.

ICO takes enforcement action against Experian after data broking investigation

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) orders the credit reference agency Experian Limited to make fundamental changes to how it handles people’s personal data within its direct marketing services. The enforcement notice follows a two-year investigation by the ICO into how Experian, Equifax and TransUnion used personal data within their data broking businesses for direct marketing purposes.

Contact-tracing data harvested from pubs and restaurants being sold on

Companies collecting data for pubs and restaurants to help them fulfil their contact-tracing duties are harvesting confidential customer information to sell.

Principles for Revenue Models of Data Stewardship

One of the biggest concerns, given data is an intangible and valuable asset, is how business models can be structured so that stewards remain incentivized to serve the interests of individuals and communities, and do not use the data for their own ends. Data is a complex resource, and to understand potential revenue models of a steward, this paper studies resources or assets which embody the complexity of data and the accompanying ethical issues of protection.
You may also want to have a look at "Understanding data stewardship: taxonomy and use cases" from the same source.

Preventing future waves of COVID-19

McKinsey's perspectives on the coronavirus outbreak, the twin threats to lives and livelihoods, and how organizations can prepare for the next normal.

Why Now Is the Time for “Open Innovation”

Covid-19 has shown how companies can work together to solve problems.

Recover from the Impact of the Covid-19 Crisis

This is a brilliant resource for business owners to help with COVID planning and impact minimisation.

Report: Out of Control

A recent extensive whitepaper from the Norwegian Consumer Council that demonstrates the need for alternative ecosystems to connect merchants with consumers.

Users would tell Facebook their bank balance for $8.44 a month

Study of people across six countries finds German users would charge most for sharing personal data. This article is based on this paper: How Much is Privacy Worth Around the World and Across Platforms?.

The new IKEA Data Promise (Video: 10:37)

Companies discover data ethics as part of their corporate communications: IKEA promises to embed data ethics into all their processes.

Datacoup is shutting down operations

This week emails were sent out: “Datacoup is shutting down operations and will be decommissioning all of our servers. Any data you previously added to the platform was never sold. If you received payments in the past, they were coming from the Datacoup treasury account.”

Money is not the only reward for sharing data online

Sharing data altruistically on digital platforms in the health sector or in research-related environments is seen as contributing to the common good, according to a new report by the Esade Institute for Social Innovation entitled My Data, My Rules: From data extractivism to digital empowerment. The study focuses on digital empowerment and analyses 13 case studies in which people have control over their personal data, with particular emphasis on the experiences of Digital Estonia, Cozy Cloud and MIDATA.coop.

Can contracts use pictures instead of words?

Operations management: Visuals and plain language make an adversarial process more constructive

Deconstructing Google’s excuses on tracking protection

It is disappointing—but regrettably unsurprising—that the Chrome team is cloaking Google’s business priorities in disingenuous technical arguments.

AI Needs Your Data—and You Should Get Paid for It

A new approach to training artificial intelligence algorithms involves paying people to submit medical data, and storing it in a blockchain-protected system.

Introducing Personal Data Exchanges & the Personal Data Economy

The next big technological shift is to a world where every individual can manage and (optionally) monetise their personal data. Companies like Facebook and Google already make billions because they know everything about us via our online habits. What if we could take a cut? What if we could own and sell our data directly?

Business & Government Intermediate read

Tech companies organize two efforts to support personal data management

...and both are called Open GDPR. Though unrelated, the initiatives reflect some of the ways the ad and marketing industry is organizing itself around its personal data responsibilities.

Watch 'The Great Hack' Trailer

They took your data. Then they took control. The Great Hack uncovers the dark world of data exploitation through the compelling personal journeys of players on different sides of the explosive Cambridge Analytica/Facebook data scandal. In select theaters and on Netflix July 24.


Questions Asked

Cost for Developing a Personal Data Store

I have been asked to find out what the cost would be to hire developers to create a personal data store.

Is selling personal data like smoking?

A great discussion triggered by this statement: Like smoking, selling personal data generated by one should be allowed if the individual so wants and it should be taxed to high heaven to discourage people from doing so.

Blogpost to give companies MyData guidance

A while back @Lasse Rouhiainen asked: 'What are the first steps when a company wants to use MyData? I would like to recommend MyData to one of my client, but not sure where to start?' I thought in simplicity this is a great question, and we might write a blogpost on this, in the spirit of “I believe in MyData - so what, what do I do now?”

Interpreting figure in MyData WhitePaper

There are some questions that I have regarding money flow between stakeholders.

Which governments or associations are committed to use MyData?

Finnish government has mention it will use MyData, but wanted to know if any other governments or big associations are committed to use MyData?


Tools
Odoo

Odoo is the best management software to run a company.

UBDI: Universal Basic Data Income

Join our mission to create Universal Basic Data Income and help every person participate in the economic value of their data and insights.