HAT personal data store allows you control the data Internet corporations have on you
Have you ever signed in to a service with your Google or Facebook account? If you have, you have given the site permission to be a custodian of your data.
Now you can use your own 'Hub of all Things' - a HAT - to sign in and control the data you share with others and terminate the connection when you no longer want to share it.
The Hub of all Things (HAT) is a 'multisided' platform technology that will give individuals the technological power to control, and share their data the way they want to so they can make better and more informed decisions.
It has launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to "mobilise a social movement to put the power of the Internet back into individual hands".
The HAT is a personal data store that allows you to collect, visualise and order the data Internet corporations have on you, and then trade and benefit from this.
You can access it, collate it and manage it from the easy-to-use dashboard, on desktop or through an app.
It is the result of a 3-year, $1.7 million multi-disciplinary research programme to put the power of the Internet back into individual hands.
The platform will give companies a new way of engaging with their customers that is much more personalised and yet standardised. It will also help firms derive revenues from data exchanges.
The HAT was developed by researchers from six UK universities working closely with industry and commercial partners.
It aims to help individuals extract as much value as possible from their personal data, providing a way to exchange data with firms for goods and services.
The platform allows the effective brokering, exchanging or monetising of personal data to benefit individuals, giving individuals a voice in the commercial world.
By combining information from sources such as Facebook, Google, broadband providers, supermarkets, online stores, streaming services and transport providers with personal data including calendar, photos and communication, users will be able to create full digital versions of themselves for the first time.
More importantly, users will have the option to trade and benefit from this data.
The platform will help customers acquire their disparate data and potentially share contextualised data with your company beyond the data you already have of them.
Contextualised data is rich and meaningful and allows a deeper understanding of your customer.
Firms can help their customers organise their own data by building native apps on the HAT Hyperdata Browser in a manner that does not take data away but respect your customers' privacy to view, analyse and use their data, their way.
All data from the HAT is shared through the data 'direct debit' system. Your customers can treat their data like their money. They could share it or spend it.
Customers that share HAT data with firms will enable them to tailor more personalised offerings in the future or create innovative data sharing applications for smarter customers.
The private and secure cloud-based information system has storage and data processing abilities. It operates like your own microserver container.
Users can access their data and manage it from a dashboard: a hyperdata browser called Rumpel, access from a desktop or mobile devices.
Expert users can install the HAT on their computer or other devices in their home or office.
They could alternatively subscribe to a service provided by certified HAT platform providers (HPP) that are legally committed to ensure privacy, security and confidentiality. HAT can be moved between HPPs at any time. HPPs are regulated by the HAT Foundation.
It will launch with;
- 1GB HAT as private (cloud) storage for personal data with your preferred hostname hosted in your home region by 1 July 2016
- Data plugs to connect with your calendar, Facebook, iPhone location, Dropbox, Spotify, Withings, Fitbit, My Fitness Pal and Fibaro
- The HAT hyperdata browser (Rumpel) to manage, organise and exchange personal data
- Applications from HAT platform providers
- APIs for developers to reward applications for your personal data
- APIs for developers to build Rumpel plugins to do help you do more with your data.
The Indiegogo campaign will run until April 15th and seeks to raise $71,000 to launch its beta to the first users in summer 2016.
Paul Tasker, CEO of the HATDEX said: "By 2020, 25 billion things will be connected to the internet - the 'Internet of Things' all of them generating data.
This data has enormous value - to individuals, businesses and the economy. It is therefore important that we as individuals have the same power as corporations to use the data for our own benefit.
We believe that if all of us have our own HATs, we will have more power in the future to influence how our data is collected, stored and used; hugely benefitting ourselves and society whilst providing new opportunities to firms wanting to sell to us."
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