Listen to this articlePersonal data platform Digi.me is revolutionizing how consumers and businesses harness the power of personal data. Digi.me is already used by over 400,000 people in 140 countries and has been localized into 11 languages. New $6.1 Million Series A funding led by global re-insurer Swiss Re will enable them to include new data sources and to implement the Permission Access capability. Below is our interview with Julian Ranger, Chairman and Founder of digi.me:
Q: What is Digi.me and how does it work?
A: Digi.me is a personal data platform designed to return control and ownership over all the information about each of us, that is fragmented across the web today, to individuals, by gathering it all in one place for greater insight and the ability to share it for a value exchange, whether service, convenience or reward. We call this the Internet of Me and believe it will be the natural next step before the Internet of Things. Our users can do this with social media information now, and soon with health, financial and other data.
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Q: Who is your ideal user and how they can benefit from your services?
A: Any user who wants to be more in control of their personal data and who it is shared with – which should be all of us really! With our upcoming Permissioned Access platform, which will see the ability for users to gather and share, if they choose, their full health and financial data for example, we see potential use cases ranging from it being quicker to apply for insurance or financial products, to credit checking and being able to easily access full medical history in case of an emergency abroad. And businesses benefit too, from gaining access to higher quality data, so it really is a true win-win value exchange.
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Q: Do you think that people are aware of importance of personal data security?
A: I think there is a growing awareness of how much data each of us generates every day, and how little we benefit from that because it is taken from behind our backs for others to make money from, or track us around the web. But, in the current climate, people struggle to see how they can change that. Data legislation, especially the upcoming European GDPR, which regulates and limits how data can be used, will help with that shift in control back to the user. As services such as digi.me show the true value of our data, to us directly and to us and businesses in new value exchanges, then this awareness will grow rapidly. It is not just about security, but the huge benefits that can accrue if data is shared, but under your control and only with whom you wish to share it.
Q: You’ve recently announced a $6.1 million series A funding round; what are your plans?
A: Our new funding, led by Swiss Re, will be used to extend digi.me to include new data sources and to implement the Permission Access capability allowing sharing of data for value between users and businesses. It will also allow us to demonstrate this value exchange with various multi-nationals in the next 6-12 months, prior to a full open launch of the digi.me platform to all users and businesses.
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Q: How does the future look like for personal data security and your company in general?
A: There is no doubt that the personal information economy is growing fast amid business calls for better quality data by businesses to support new innovations, and increasing user awareness of what is taken from them without them seeing any benefit. There is also a strong movement in the direction of individual ownership and control of data which makes our Internet of Me vision the only viable solution to meet privacy and data protection concerns.
Digi.me is a key enabler of the Internet of Me and hence we see a very bright future for what we do. We are uniquely positioned today with our stance on user data, which we never see, hold nor touch – there are no privacy issues or suspicion of back-door data selling with digi.me. We do what we say on the tin – unlock the power of personal data for both users and businesses – and we expect this to power us forward as the first major business in this new, and better, world.
Last Updated on July 19, 2016
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