Mydex’s mission is to help individuals realise the value of their personal data.
We do this by providing individuals with Personal Data Stores and related services.
Personal Data Stores help individuals gather, store, manage, use and share the information they need to manage their lives better. They provide individuals with tools to control what information they share with which people and organisations, when.
How a Personal Data Store works
Currently, to buy something online, you have to fill in a form on your supplier’s website: name, address, card details etc. Then, if you want to buy something from a different supplier, you have to repeat the whole rigmarole.
With the Mydex PDS, you keep this information on your own ‘database’. So, for you example, have your ‘data field’ for ‘my credit card’. If you want to use your credit card to buy something online, instead of having to type it out again and again each time you do a transaction, you just ‘click’ on it to share.
Our core principles. Convenience. Control. Safety
Those are the three core principles of the Mydex Personal Data Store:
- your personal details are yours. They sit on your side, in your database
- you can use the same data quickly and easily, again and again. The principle is ‘input once, use many times’
- the data you store – and how you share it – is always encrypted, safe and secure. Only you can see your data. Other people only see the data you want to share with them.
These core principles apply everywhere
These core principles can apply to all the information you use to manage your life.
The more things you do, the more data you add to your Personal Data Store. Say, for example, you need to apply for a parking permit. You need a vehicle registration document, a certificate of motor insurance, and proof of address. You can store all this information on your Personal Data Store – with verifications from the parties concerned that this information is correct. If your local council has got the right systems in place, you can then share it with your council on the click of a button.
The same goes for all sorts of personal details: your National Insurance number, your blood type, how long you have lived at your current address, your computer’s serial number. The list gets pretty long pretty quickly!
The data itself can sit on your device (PC, Mac, smartphone) or be accessible using it.
Looking to the future
The organisations you deal with will automatically populate your Personal Data Store with details as part of the transaction. When you make your purchase online for example, the date of the transaction, value, product or service purchased, serial number, guarantee etc will automatically get stored on your PDS for future reference.
- Some organisations may go one step further and hand back to you data they have collected about you: your previous purchases, for example.
- On request, organisations will supply your PDS with certifications and verifications as in the case of the car parking permit.
- You will be to specify which organisations who want to receive communications from, how (e.g. email or post?), about what (‘tell me about cookers but not fridges’), when – and you will be able to change these settings at will.
Sharing information
Once the information is on your Personal Data Store, you need to be able to share it. The process is very simple. You choose which bits (fields) of data you want to share (e.g. name and address, but not telephone number) and who you want to share it with. You then click ‘send’.
That’s it. You don’t have to navigate your way to the organisation’s website or fill in a password and username. Once you have agreed to share information with an organisation, Mydex establishes a secure, encrypted direct digital ‘pipeline’ that connects your data store to their data systems.
Remember, you are in control. You decide what information you want to share with which organisation. Mydex’s job is to make this information sharing easy and safe.
Staying in control
Currently, when you buy something online, to complete the process you have to tick a box saying something like ‘I have read and agreed to the terms and conditions’ .
Mydex turns this on its head: before you share any information with an organisation they have to sign your terms and conditions, designed to protect your data and your privacy. Any organisation that does not sign these terms and conditions cannot use the Mydex platform.
For more detail on what Personal Data Stores do, click here
