Citizen centricity, which enables people living in a country to easily opt in to government and third party services by owning and controlling their own digital footprint, is taking off around the world.
One of the leading governments enabling it is the Slovak Republic which is currently running a MyData pilot project to implement an approved “student status” record. The global MyData organisation is built on the guiding principles of empowering individuals by putting them in charge of their data, and who can access it.
The Slovak pilot helps students open bank accounts and access discounts, such as travel, they are entitled to, as well as enabling them to prove their student status to employers. This, in turn, allows them to access appropriate working conditions, contracts and state-supported social and healthcare insurance.
The pilot is being run by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for Investments and Informization, using the digi.me platform, which has been integrated into the government’s own data system.
The pilot, which runs until the end of October, is designed to demonstrate the convenience and value which comes from individuals being in control of their own data.
It is the forerunner to a national data strategy, which will offer all Slovak citizens the GDPR-based right to own, control and use an electronic copy of all of their government-held data. The intention for the national rollout is that citizens will be able to use their personal data for a new generation of private sector services, based on privacy by design principles.
Dagmar Bosanska of data analytics management consultancy Alistiq, which is advising on the pilot, said the Slovakian digitalisation strategy’s main pillars are around data, because the government understood how revolution in this area could transform how public sectors, as well as businesses, offer services.
Digi.me was chosen as the technical partner, she said, as it had the most advanced solution in the Personal Data Economy space, and as a founding MyData partner was also very aware of the ideology and benefits springing from human-centric data ownership.
The pilot has helped the government, as well as businesses, understand the value of citizen centricity, and the team is currently in talks with a bank, which is keen to integrate their internal banking system with the digi.me ecosystem for easier customer onboarding, as well as transportation companies, which also see the benefits.
She said the Slovak government has provided an example of what good practice looks like, and the benefits of countries taking responsibility for data and empowering their citizens with it, and hopes the private sector will now get on board and make the most of innovating with this new opportunity.
The movement to enable data mobility is fast becoming a globally-recognised standard, with industry players worldwide examining how data can be shared safely, and with this new markets and opportunities unlocked.
Click here to read the initial findings of the CTRL-Shift Data Mobility Infrastructure Sandbox in the UK, where partners include Facebook, the BBC and BT, with digi.me as the data facilitator.