What do personal data have in common with coffee? Nothing at first glance. But if we look behind the scenes of the production of the black elixir of life, we will find what we are looking for. At least when we look at fair trade data and fair produced coffee. Just as Fairtrade strengthens coffee producers and promotes fair trade, BitsaboutMe strengthens Internet users to benefit from the value of their personal data.
The vision of BitsaboutMe is a world in which all Internet users can decide for themselves with whom they are willing to share their data.
We believe that only fair data trading can be the lever for sustained digitalization and better, more personalized products and services – and only if it is managed with more transparency and balance than it currently is.
“Data fairtrade” has rapidly gained in relevance over the past months, not least because of the new data protection laws and the current data scandals.
We believe that Internet users can overcome the current imbalance at their expense if they are empowered to take more control over their data. They will realize the value of their data when they get access to companies and organizations that are interested in their data and willing to pay for it.
We are convinced that companies and organizations will support this innovative way of data trading. By being able to obtain personal data directly from Internet users, they get better, always up-to-date data and can better meet their customers’ expectations. At the same time, they get the necessary consent of the users for processing the data.
As a company we fully committed ourselves to “Privacy by Design” and we want to encourage companies and organizations to become partners on our path. Trust is a decisive factor and the result of our work, transparency and participation are the way to be responsible for our work.
