News & Insights

At INNOPAY, our mission is to guide organisations worldwide to fully embrace the opportunities of the digital transactions era. We are committed to creating a world in which all people and organisations use and trust digital transactions. That’s why we fully support the coalition of partners calling for today – 16 September – to be recognised as International Identity Day.

The purpose of International Identity Day is to raise awareness about the important role identity plays in empowering individuals to exercise their rights and responsibilities fairly and equitably in a modern society. The date is inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16.9. That goal makes ‘legal identity for all by 2030’ an important development goal which was embraced by all 193 Member States at the United Nations.

Data sovereignty as design principle

In a world where everything is becoming a transaction, we are increasingly utilising advanced services that entail more data processing. Yet, paradoxically, our trust that companies will keep our data secure is diminishing. There is a growing sense that we have little to no control over what happens to our data and how others can use it for profit, which is contributing to the rising dissatisfaction. The ‘data benefit balance’ is out of kilter, and is currently weighted in favour of just a handful of global tech giants.

That balance must be redressed in the consumer’s favour, and one way to do so is to put consumers back in control of ‘their’ data. In short, trust-based access to data is crucial for the next stage of the transactional internet.

Data sovereignty through ‘soft’ infrastructure

This starts with data sovereignty which gives consumers and businesses control over their data assets without having to store the data centrally. This can be achieved by each data holder implementing a standardised and legally sound identity and consent mechanism.

Such a data sovereignty infrastructure enables data holders to control and monitor who is granted access to their data, to allow their data to be reshared between providers and to give consent to engage in a transactional relationship about the usage of their data. In return they receive a ‘data dividend’ in the form of a service, credits and/or some other kind of financial value. This will restore the data benefit balance and trust in the transactional internet. For companies, this will automatically improve their relationships with customers, who will in turn become more willing to share their data. More data means more relevance, and more customers means more revenue.

At INNOPAY we use data sovereignty as a design principle to develop trust frameworks such as iSHARE (www.ishareworks.org). Reusable digital identities are key in scaling these trust frameworks. Read more about it in our book: Everything Transaction (https://www.innopay.com/everything-transaction)

Please join us in advocating the adoption of International Identity Day!

https://www.id-day.org