BitsaboutMe is a young startup based in Bern, Switzerland. We operate in the newly emerging Personal Data Economy.
Our two founders Christian and Christophe have spent their careers in various digital businesses in which the use of data always played a crucial role. They met in 2012 as CEO and CTO of ricardo.ch, the Swiss version of eBay. Since those days they shared a common conviction that data is a huge asset but also that the current deal is fundamentally flawed and unfair, when consumers give away their rights in exchange for “free” services. Changing that paradigm became their joint ambition…
After ricardo.ch was sold, they had quit their corporate roles, separately exploring new opportunities, when in spring 2016 the EU passed a new data privacy law GDPR and created the missing link that was needed to change the game of personal data. The two quickly decided that it was the time to act and to build a consumer product that can operationalize the new consumer rights (right of copy, right to be forgotten, etc.) granted by GDPR. In the fall they started BitsaboutMe and are since then working full-time on a solution to empower consumers to reclaim control of their personal data. The vision is to build an online marketplace for personal data, that enables individuals to share their personal data profiles safely and securely, similar to how eBay enabled the online trading of goods 20 years ago.
The BitsaboutMe approach is fundamentally different from the current “data for free services” model, because consumers always keep full control over their data. They alone decide what happens with their data. BitsaboutMe role is to provides the platform where personal data profiles can be exchanged and traded always by the consumers own rules, with consent and under their full control.
