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David Flynn

Tech Entrepreneurs / Developers - Looking for feedback

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Hey everyone! I'm working on a project and am looking for some feedback from other founders. Our goal is to put users in control over their data without sacrificing the wonderful things that data can do for a tech platform. We're building an API for platforms to read and write data to an individual's data hub. We're also building an app for individuals to manage their data and connections. By decoupling user data from tech platforms, individuals can bring their data with them to your platform. As more platforms contribute data to individual's data hubs, the more data you can instantly access about your users (with permission). Then it's up to you what you do with it - but if you abuse it, your users may disable the connection. As a developer or founder of a platform that collects any amount of user data, is this something that would be valuable?

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Mr Ethar Alali
Haha! This was my idea several years ago. I think I once even posted it in a thread in here. I never had the time at the time to fully run with it. Glad someone has. I'd be up for it! Just make sure security is watertight.
Ryan Connaughton
Sounds like it has potential! I'm envisoning some kind of interface / reminders of exactly what data is being used by whom (kind of like notifcations that mac/iOS gives you - "X app is requesting this data" --> so seeing a birds eye view or some kind of 'data visulation' summary page of active requests/whats being tracked and helpful comment summaries would be cool. I think one of the main challenges would be (outside of the technical and security challenges), that you'd need to be seen as the 'arbiter' or 'gatekeeper' of all their data so a strong and trustworthy brand would need to be established first for people to buy-in.
David Flynn
@ryanconnaughton yes, I think that will be the challenge. I do think that by giving users a portal into their data as you said, we make lots of things possible. The biggest benefit I see is that smaller platforms would essentially be working together to crowdsource user data. As more data is collected, more is available for use by other platforms. Which makes for better competition and less influence of the big tech platforms.
David Flynn
Ethar, that’s great to hear. What do you do now? There are some platforms reaching maturity that will be able to be brought together to achieve this goal. I think it’s vital for the next gen internet.
Paul Woodthorpe
Would this be very similar to OAuth but with more user data available and sharable (with permission) with other sites that connect?