My Digital FootPrint

The purpose of this post is to explore the topic of CONSENT, which I have been writing about for over 6 years. I have unpacked consent in many articles and have concluded that as we unpack each layer of consent, we find that it is not what you thought it was. CONSENT is a mix of technology, ethics, policy, law, requirements, economics, data, marketing and trust to name a few. There are three paths leading from consent being requested to consent being agreed by the user. Path 1 is that you use your design skills to manufacture the users consent, using colour, fonts, buttons, processes with the intent to gain consent without interfering with the real business purpose. Lowest possible barrier. Path 2 is where we depend on each team (marketing, sales, operations and tech) doing their own thing and determine their own methods to gain and confirm consent to satisfy their requirements. Confusion often becomes evident Path 3 is where the organisation designs consent to be aligned to its own ...

#facebook published “ Charting a Way Forward on Privacy and Data Portability ” on 4/10/19 however it is *not* a white paper but a document seeking free guidance and input. In their own words “To address these challenges, we’re seeking feedback and guidance from a wide range of stakeholders about how to build portability in a way that empowers people and fosters competition while maintaining their trust in online services” I have, like many others, given a lot of input over the years to Facebook for free via invites to brainstorms, private sessions and roundtables. In all cases massive promises are made by #Facebook about what next but they never deliver. No papers, no summary, no write up, no thanks – nothing. I set out my thinking on the #facebook data portability paper at the end as interest to those who might also read the paper. I have been exploring the topic of data portability for some time. This piece explores the strategic opinions for market models and the regulators stanc...

{portability, sharing, mobility} this is used to provide the widest possible coverage of models and thinking. Portability that the data can move, sharing data as the ability to have access but does not need to move, and mobility as in the data is decentralized ------- Any discussion about personal data leads to opinions being shared about what it means (to someone) based on the position you start from; a personal view is different from a groups view, which is different from a citizens view and different again from an enterprise views. Inevitably there is a heated exchange as one of the parties believes in the purity of their view(point) and model to create a utopia and panacea for everyone. Once we grasp that there are massive gaps, voids and value in any of the starting positions; adding the complexity of assumptions, experiences and data itself, we can look at the different approaches and debate the wide range of solutions. The purpose of this post is to provide a framework...

The thinking that data mobility will create new economic value is 10 to 15 years old. I explored the growth potential in my Book “ My Digital Footprint ” in 2008 and I was building on existing economic ideas.  Fast forward 10 years and lots more thinking about the potential upsides and why sharing data creates value. An excellent 2018 report for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Data Mobility: The data portability growth opportunity for the UK economy is such as report. To save some time; my summary of this report is here . Ctrl-Shift who wrote the report have gone on and created a Sandbox to showcase examples and bring the theory to life. The Sandbox is a cross-sector collaboration with Barclays, the BBC, BT, Centrica, Facebook and digi.me Independent observers ( check that outcomes are not made up of biased on one solution) to the Sandbox include the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI), Consumers International, the DCM...

peeling back the layers — thanks to  James Abell  for the minecraft illustration. We love the model or analogy about peeling an onion. We peel back one layer to reveal a new similar layer, each layer enabling us to offer a new idea or thinking and adding complexity. Often we use this model for ourselves to get to our inner core and what values drive us. C onsent:  in digital context is being explored in many places by many people.  Kantara  and MEF are two good examples. However, I am finding that as I peel, explore and uncover the “onion” of layered consent, I find that the next layer is not more onion [ with deeper inner meaning driving me to a core philosophy ] but rather I find something totally new, indeed I don;t start with an onion but a coconut. Inside my coconut I find an orange, then a Kiwi, then a grapefruit, passing a passion fruit and then a dragon fruit. Peeling this inner core, I hope to find inner meaning but it only reveals a two spou...

The start of this was a directed ideation from  Ian Oppermann  NSW Chief Data Scientist and CEO of NSW Data Analytics Centre. The Challenge: How do you design a privacy preserving data sharing framework based on these papers. They are well written and provide a very good framework for the question. Privacy in Data Sharing — A Guide for Business and Government (Nov 2018) Data Sharing Frameworks — Technical White paper (Sept 2017) A write up from the original work is here.  https://medium.com/@tonyfish/black-swans-and-the-value-of-sharing-data-portability-mobility-900cf12d0c7c Focus Safe People, Safe Projects Within this context, what is a safe project and safe people for a privacy perserviing data sharing idea? Where “safe” means in this context — privacy preserving. Ignoring other factors such as sensitivity, importance, ethics and outcomes. Assumption 1. The reconstruction/ re-identification problem PII (personally identifiable information) ...

This thought piece explores how business executives ought to be debating control over user (data), is less about where data is collected and stored but rather where, or rather how, individual data is used, monetised and by whom. -- Given that platform companies such as Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Baidu, Amazon, Alibaba, Tencent Xiaomi as examples complicate, confuse and officiate what they are actually doing with our personal data, how can leaders position their business to become truly customer centric and put the customer first. As a context, economics defines utility companies (gas, electricity, water, telecoms) as only having one true differentiator - price. Given the ubiquity and certainty of one unit of electricity is the same from where-every you buy it, the market players create bundles and offers to hide the actual price and to make comparisons between the same utility very difficult or near impossible. However, what happens when you don't have a “price” e.g. Fac...

Ctrl Shift published the report it undertook for DCMS Data Portability (mobility) The Full report is here for download  Or the 8 page version is here – this is 10 minutes and well worth reading  My takeaway  "Data Portability isn’t the issue, it’s what can be done with the data at the other end that matters."  The core issues This report makes three recommendations which directly support the progression of the personal data mobility development agenda: Recommendation 1: Create the personal data mobility Coordinating Entity (CE). The Coordinating Entity requires the following characteristics to be successful: • Empowered – have teeth or have the resources to teeth the enforcement of action. • Commercially independent. • Impartial – be known to be unbiased. • Have capacity and funds to support engagement. • Be able to coordinate across sectors. • Have market authority – strong skills and knowledge and with the capacity to...

I saw 50 black swans when thinking how data data portability/ mobility will migrate value towards the individual. Now some headlines are set up for click bait; however here is my picture taken in on the North Island New Zealand on lake Rotomahana when out walking and preparing this. Yes each little do it a black swan. Summary : Been thinking about the complex and hidden implications of the personal data portability/ mobility models and data sharing economics. The thinking leads to the possibility of making it far harder for large silo data owners to sell/ share their data due to risk of re-identification; which changes the data economy. Less general silo data being available for sale but increasing demand for ‘quality’ data could mean individual collated data becomes far more valued far quicker than forecast, as the value chain shifts in response to new legislation/ regulation. Early and fast adopting countries will benefit with significant increases in innovation, investment and ...