New App Ecosystem Gives Consumers Unprecedented and Unrivaled Control Over How Apps Access and Use Individual Data

digi.me is announcing the launch of a new platform that will radically change the way that we view data online and provide unprecedented levels of privacy to consumers concerned about how their data is being used.

Using the digi.me platform, consumers can connect with more than 15,000 sources of personal data – including social media, credit cards, banks, fitness wearables, music history, and health records. The growing catalog offers clean, structured data from many of the most used services in the world, which means a user’s digi.me library can quickly grow into tens of thousands of unique, authenticated data points. Users can then install apps specifically designed to be powered by digi.me in order to gain insights, analytics, and other valuable information about their lives.

Digi.me is also different because it does not store a user’s data library on a centralized server. Once the data is downloaded and compiled, it is encrypted and stored on a personal cloud service (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive) of the user’s choosing. Because the user stores their data library in their own personal cloud, they retain full ownership and control over it. Digi.me never sees, touches, or holds individual data in what is a truly decentralized approach to app/data integration.

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“We are offering a solution that gives people control over the single most important input in the digital world — their own data,” said Shane Green, CEO (US) of digi.me. “While other copies of that data may exist in corporate or government silos, we as individuals have the unique advantage of being able to combine all of it in one place and give clear consent to its use.”

“The benefits for developers willing to respect a user’s control of their data are virtually unlimited,” said Tarik Kurspahic, EVP of Technology for digi.me. “Developers have always dreamed of being able to innovate with a near perfect set of a user’s data. We have built the foundation for exactly that, while also addressing the liability of storing that data.”

The company’s privacy and security technology enables innovative new ways for data to be used by apps while protecting a user’s privacy, including app-to-app sharing without data ever leaving a user’s device. Each user decides where their data will be stored and how and when it can be decrypted and used by apps. This allows app developers to access far richer data to create the best possible experiences and benefits for users, while providing users with the peace of mind that their data remains under their control. Apps are required to adhere with the new GDPR (General Data Protection Rules) laws in Europe, while existing apps can integrate digi.me technology.

Today’s announcement of the “iTunes of personal data” highlights 9 original apps, with dozens more in development. Apps cover a wide variety of use cases, including analytics of social media habits, emotional content of social posts, financial insights, accessing and sharing health records, risk monitoring of chronic diseases, vaccine alerts when traveling, and importing social data and photos.

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Digi.me is also building a network of investors and entrepreneurs who want to support teams to build apps and businesses in this new model.

“Giving individuals greater agency over their own data is the only way forward,” said CV Madhukar, Investment Partner at Omidyar Network, a social impact investor. “That’s why we invested in digi.me and it is why we continue to look for companies who see the commercial and societal benefits of this approach.”

Included in the initial wave of original apps on digi.me’s platform are:

• HealthyMe – Allows users to download all of their medical records into one place where they can easily be searched, viewed, and shared.
• Finsights – Private and secure financial manager that instantly gives users a window into all of their expenses and spending.
• Sand – Analyzes a year’s worth of social media data across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social sites to analyze posting habits, including by day and time.
• Happy Not Happy – Provides insights on the emotional content and mood of a user’s social media posts over the previous two years.
• Retina Risk – Diabetes manager that uses health and device data to help patients identify their risk for sight-threatening retinopathy. Users can track and monitor disease progression and gain insights into their condition.
• VaxAbroad – Analyzes your immunization records to see what vaccines you need before traveling to a specific country.
• MyDuchenne – Helps individuals track and share their child’s Duchenne muscular dystrophy condition and visualize information using simple timelines and graphs.
• SocialSafe – Allows you to import every photo you have ever posted, re-posted, commented on, or liked across every major social network.
• Digi.me – The dashboard app for discovering and connecting to data sources and managing permissions with third party apps.