Empowering Consumers to Control their Personal Data, Freckle Launches Killi

Killi, the Revolutionary App Built on the Blockchain, Not Only Allows Consumers Control of their Identity but Provides F500 Brands with GDPR-Compliant Data

Freckle IoT, the leading multi-channel offline attribution company, announced the launch of Killi, a consumer application built on the blockchain that allows people to take back control of their identity from corporations that have been using it for their benefit without the consumers’ express consent.

Now available in both the Apple and Google stores in North America, Killi empowers consumers to consent to the use of their identity and to be financially compensated for it. By storing all transactions on the blockchain, Killi protects consumers’ privacy while providing brands and consumers with a full audit trail to expose which brands purchased consumers’ data – a global first. In purchasing data directly from the user, Killi redistributes the value of the data back to its rightful owner – the consumer. Payments to Killi users are currently made via direct deposits into PayPal and Amazon accounts. Additional redemption features, including to charity, will be released in the coming weeks.

“This app couldn’t be more timely. In 2017, there was a 45 percent increase in data breaches from 2016. And only in March of this year, news broke that Cambridge Analytica had acquired personal information about Facebook users,” explains Neil Sweeney, founder and chief executive officer of Freckle IoT. “Killi provides people an option to take back control of their identity and regain some privacy. Further, consumers will be able to choose, if they wish, to enter into direct financial contracts with brands and be directly compensated for the use of their data. It’s about time.”

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All companies that operate in the European Union (EU) must now comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and its regulatory influence is even now extending to North America. The digital advertising ecosystem has historically depended on data that is not necessarily compliant with GDPR. This regulatory change creates a problem for companies who use data as a decisioning engine. Killi solves this issue by providing advertisers with a first-party user base that is 100% verified, opted-in and GDPR-compliant, while still able to be used in any global buying or data platform.

Freckle’s existing customers, who represent one-third of the Fortune 500, were the first companies privately invited to use and inform the development of Killi before its release.

“I wholly believe that consumers should own their identity, and using Killi is a great way for marketers to stay ahead of GDPR compliance,” says Warren Zenna, former head of Mobext at Havas Media. “The industry must change the way we approach data to continue to deliver the personalized experiences that our customers enjoy, on their terms.”

“With Freckle’s offline attribution solution now being powered by the people of Killi, brands and agencies can have more confidence in Freckle’s attribution than ever before. It represents the only offline attribution solution in the world powered specifically by consumers,” says Sweeney.

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Partners of Killi can also deploy brand surveys to the Killi user base to collect additional first-party insights, surveys for which the consumer will be paid. The app reinforces existing consumer loyalty redemption habits that have been successful for years. Surveys are available on a first-come, first-serve basis for the partners to customize. These surveys can be up to four questions in length and targeted to Killi users based on opted in and validated data points including country, region, gender, age and location, as well as by mobile handset, operating system and mobile carrier. Additional targeting parameters are imminent.

“Because Killi users will be paid immediately after responding to any survey regardless of their answers, we believe adoption will be incredibly high,” predicts Sweeney.

All data collected through Killi is 100 percent verified. Verification includes, but is not limited to, social validation and driver’s license barcode scanning, a ubiquitous North American identifier.

Using Killi is simple and easy to adopt. Brands and agencies are not required to understand the nuances of the blockchain nor change any buying or data infrastructure in order to work with Killi. Once a consumer’s data is purchased by a brand or agency, the data is dynamically moved from the consumer to the advertiser’s designated data or buying platform via the integrations that Freckle currently has with global demand-side platforms (DSPs), ad servers and data management platforms (DMPs).

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