Mobile and blockchain technologies are opening up new ways for citizens to interact with their state and with the marketplace. Procivis is developing innovative technology solutions to make these new forms of interaction user-friendly, relevant and secure. VETRI is the next iteration of the Procivis digital identity platform, which draws on the e-government platform eID+, also developed by Procivis.
A fast-growing market
Whereas governments typically identify their citizens via government-authenticated identity attributes, market participants are willing and able to transact on the basis of a far broader set of data as long as it can be relied upon to a reasonable degree. For the next iteration of its digital identity platform, Procivis intends to expand the digital identity sphere beyond the narrow, government-defined set of identity attributes. In the age of big data, individuals generate an exponential amount of personal data that can identify who they are and the choices they make. With VETRI, users will be able to control, safeguard and share that data when they so choose.
Targeted but anonymized data
Buyers of this digital data for marketing purposes are also well served by VETRI because they do not need to know people’s names, or contact details to run effective marketing campaigns. All they require is a certain assurance they can reach a desired target audience as defined by the relevant combination of a user’s data, such as a particular demographic. With VETRI, users will be able to proactively share anonymized data, thus enabling the creation of target audience filters on the VETRI platform for digital advertisers. In return, users will receive timely and relevant marketing. A key innovation is that with VETRI these advertisers can never read or copy the information, but are simply assured that a defined pool of users corresponds to their audience criteria and have consented to receiving advertising from them or from similar companies as specified by the users’ interest and preference settings. Furthermore, the use cases for acquiring anonymized personal data go far beyond advertising to include, for instance, the growing demand from market and healthcare research.
Users remunerated for their data
The VETRI platform will consist of a mobile wallet (VETRI wallet) for users to manage their personal data as well as an application (VETRI marketplace) for data consumers to buy and access that data. Users will be remunerated instead of the intermediaries: Practically, this means that if the VETRI user opts to select a service via the VETRI platform — a hotel reservation, say — the hotel will remunerate the user directly for the advertising message. There is no intermediary. VETRI does not receive any fee or commission for the transaction. VETRI, by design, will not be able to access, read or collect any information contained in users’ wallets thereby removing the risk of creating “honey pots” for hackers.
Peer-to-peer, no intermediary
While the idea of anonymously matching the owners and buyers of high-quality data is not new, what is new is that VETRI delivers a solution that does not require a central business intermediary that needs to be paid for matching two parties: VETRI is a not-for-profit, open-source platform. VETRI’s user revenue model will be a function of several parameters, including the nature and reliability of data contained in users’ accounts, the privacy settings and sharing preferences as defined by the user, and the degree of desirability of any particular dataset, as perceived and bid for by participating data consumers.
Changing regulatory landscape
In May 2018, a new European privacy regulation called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force. It will be implemented in all privacy laws across the entire EU and EEA region, and will apply to all legal entities selling to, and storing personal information about, residents in Europe, including companies located on other continents. The aim of this regulation is to give individuals more power over their data and less discretion to the organizations that collect and use it for monetary gains. VETRI collects the required data for the end-user and is, therefore, also the solution for GDPR.