Reclaim Your Self, Reclaim Your Future: A CEO Manifesto for Data Freedom through the Power of Holistic Identity

Global networks, connectivity, and the freedom of data—these are things that I’ve always been very passionate about and resonated with, as I spent the early years of my career in the 90s being part of a team that built the world’s first Internet Service Providers.

As my career evolved, so did the Internet and our lives. My first decade was dedicated to building digital systems providing access to information, where we were merely consumers of data, and content production was extremely difficult. In the second decade of my career, I worked on technology that made it incredibly easy for us to produce and manage content. The amount of data we have created globally, and the many ways we use this data daily to learn, entertain and discover new experiences excite me. Yet, we are incredibly nascent in unlocking the real value of our digital selves.

This wave of the Internet led to the flourishing of data in the digital realm, which ushered in the third decade—the one we’re experiencing—in which we live in a world that necessitates liberation from anachronistic data management rules.

Ownership of Our Own Data is Non-Existent

Data, the lifeblood of our digital systems, comes in many forms—from personal and private data, protected data, and our public data. How we see and value our data differs across individuals. Everyone should have complete autonomy to decide and manage what kinds of data should be kept private, protected, or public, and with whom we choose to share them.

Shockingly, ownership of our data is non-existent today. Our data points and activities, sprawled across the vast digital realm, are used by others, such as the marketing industry, to gather insights. They are categorised into various datasets, ranging from first-party to third-party data, without any oversight from ourselves, leading to inaccurate misrepresentations of our true selves.

We are inherently tied to platforms that we use frequently. The lack of data portability means that information is tied to that platform. We can’t do anything with this data outside of that environment, causing a vendor lock-in, and fragmented datasets if we make future bookings on other platforms that aren’t integrated.

We should be able to fluidly move our data from platform to platform whenever we want and control how comprehensively we wish to be known by others and even to what degree of accuracy or authenticity.

We must change what has become an industry norm by advocating for individuals’ right to appoint their own custodial data managers.

The Value of Private Data Today

British mathematician Clive Humby once said, “Data is the new oil. Data is just like crude; it’s valuable but cannot be used if unrefined.” These words cannot ring any truer in today’s digitalised era. Indeed, data is the linchpin of our digital economy.

With the rise of AI, we have already seen how public data sets have been used by others to train the AI models that we pay for. The next set of data is the protected data sitting within businesses that are now being unlocked, providing a single view of the customer. The richest set of data of all is the holistic view of oneself: truly understanding how our actions and behaviours can be used to our benefit without giving up our privacy or access to it.

Our individuality makes us unique and valuable; our distinct preferences, dislikes, goals, and more are what make us human. Our individuality is translated into our digital interactions and the data footprints we leave behind. Against the backdrop of AI and its future, our private data will be what sets companies apart. Companies that enable their customers to share more information about themselves willingly will have a competitive advantage over those that can’t.

Data and AI as Complementary

AI is the future, and it will augment the intelligence and creativity of humans. For AI to benefit humanity most, it must understand us, which will inevitably require access to our personal data.

Private data will differentiate one AI model from another. If we can train AI on private personal datasets, we could experience a future where each of us will possess our unique AI agent with its own identity—our bespoke AI agent working for us.

Imagine a personal concierge that understands you deeply, analyses your needs, offers tailored recommendations, and remembers your preferences. Because it’s trained on your private data, it provides an incredibly accurate digital reflection of you, offering a level of personalisation and insight that feels remarkably real.

Every interaction between these AI agents generates new data. Because we can trust the accuracy of the foundational data, we can also be confident that the insights produced from these exchanges are reliable. A key difference here is the authenticity and attestation of data as it flows between others we interact with, our self-representations, and trusted data issuers.

Artificial Intelligence is no match for Human expression. Being human does not require us to act as robots, where we must meet a single representation of who or what we are.

The Problem of Cybersecurity

Recognising that private data, coupled with AI, unlocks countless possibilities, the risks of cyber threats unfortunately increase along with it. AI-powered attacks are now considered the most severe and challenging emerging threat to handle.

IBM’s X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2024 supports this, with figures showing a 71% spike in cyberattacks caused by exploiting identity in 2023, and a 266% uptick in info-stealing malware.

These problems stem from businesses that still rely on centralised databases to store and manage their data. While once considered secure, these systems have become prime targets for cybercriminals. Transitioning to more decentralised, distributed systems can mitigate these risks, providing a more resilient defence against the ever-growing tide of cyber threats.

The Problem of Unknown Uses of Our Data

More frighteningly, the consequences are dire when data falls into the wrong hands or is misused. Think of the infamous Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, where social circles and interests were manipulated to change political views. In today’s context of trained Generative AI and the emerging threat of deepfakes, the risk is even greater.

To date, Big Tech has yet to reveal the true spectrum of its usage of our data. In an era when we create and consume so much information across platforms daily, platform owners can control the information shown to the public and potentially manipulate algorithms with duplicitous agendas.

The Call for Reclamation of Data Ownership

We feed so much of ourselves into Big Tech and their platforms, but we don’t exactly know how our data is being used and for what purposes. We should not allow these companies to continue owning our data and use it at will, unbeknownst to us.

A recent report from Twilio found that 60% of Asia Pacific consumers demand consent and communication on data usage. Looking at major economies like the United States, PwC revealed a trust gap, with only 30% of its consumers trusting businesses with their data use.

We must demand greater privacy and autonomy over our data, not only to protect it but also to unlock its true value. With complete autonomy over our data, we can determine our desired level of privacy, trust, and transparency at our discretion.

What is Holistic Identity?

I envision an ideal world where billions of us have reclaimed our data, reclaimed our digital identities, and, ultimately, reclaimed our digital selves. This is encompassed in a concept we call Holistic Identity, where individuals can easily control and manage their private information. By consolidating their fragmented digital identities across the Internet into a private vault, they can dictate what information they choose to share and with whom while ensuring the integrity of their data is secured.

Through Holistic Identity solutions, individuals can reconstitute scattered datasets and enjoy a complete 360-degree view of their digital selves, where they can seamlessly discover, collect, share, store and even benefit from their data.

Through the Holistic Identity concept, organisations and businesses can better understand their customers through accurate, up-to-date insights gathered from customers’ vaults—a personal data store. Companies can introduce streamlined customer onboarding processes and develop innovative strategies to enhance customer experience with more accurate and insightful data, all while ensuring compliance with global privacy regulations through consent-first data management principles.

This will drastically reduce the amount of customer data organisations hold. Their databases no longer store these valuable assets, greatly reducing the impact of cybersecurity breaches and data liabilities. If there isn’t anything to steal, hacking becomes meaningless.

At Affinidi, we want to create a world where people can choose what they want to do with their data. We are returning the power of data to individuals and unlocking a new freedom with it.

New Ways of Doing Familiar Things

Revolutionising how we think about existing structures and incorporating the suite of Holistic Identity solutions can lead to new ways of doing familiar things. This includes everyday tasks such as conducting industry research, surveys, and data collection.

We’re working towards a future where individuals can self-record and report on data survey responses. This would enable businesses to collate consumer preferences more accurately through zero-party data, minimising inaccuracy or unreliability from fragmented data sets.

Trust is established as increased value is attained through personalisation, creating a net gain between consumers and their favourite brands. Data portability will foster market competitiveness, as individuals can seamlessly migrate their personal data to choose a preferred service provider.

In healthcare, individuals can experience data portability benefits by easily porting their health data abroad and sharing it with overseas medical professionals for accurate and reliable support.

Challenges to Holistic Identity Adoption and the Way Forward

The last time the tech space had big disrupters was in the 1990s. It took the industry seven years from 2006 for cloud computing to become popular. The journey to transformation and globally impactful technology can be long, and it is imperative that we are comfortable with isolated and unpopular concepts of being disruptors.

People should ask themselves: Are we willing to leave these ‘walled gardens’ for a world where we own our identity and data for privacy, portability across platforms, and ultimately deeper trust with others and brands?

But they don’t realise that we have the power to be changemakers. To these platforms, we, as individuals, are the product; their success hinges on the data we provide.

It Takes All of Us

Ultimately, success is achieved when communities and individuals enjoy a data value chain wholly built on trust and transparency. Holistic Identity can help us achieve this, representing a paradigm shift in navigating the complexities of digital interactions.

Holistic Identity transcends mere technological innovation; it embodies a convergence of technology and human needs, offering individuals the freedom to dictate their privacy preferences, control data access, and determine its value.

Government-to-government collaborations have the potential to significantly improve and simplify data exchange, fostering stronger and more insightful international partnerships.

The team at Affinidi is already en route to our ultimate goal of data reclamation. Still, the true materialisation of this vision requires whole-of-society efforts—ranging from organisations to governments to individuals—to adopt and feed into this ecosystem of ethical and consented data sharing.

Whether through advocacy, partnership or becoming more informed, we encourage YOU to join the movement to #ReclaimYourData. Learn more about what and why we do here at affinidi.com.