New App Allows Consumers to Trade their Information

In London, start-up company people.io is trialling an app allowing consumers to trade information about their tastes and preferences for credits, exchangeable for goods or services.

The platform, which has investor backing, is intended to 'rebalance the relationship between consumers and brands by licensing personal data and putting people in control of their information'. Businesses - beginning with a number of restaurants and other retail establishments in the Shoreditch area - bid for the opportunity to connect with customers identified as appropriate for them. Credits - which begin accruing as soon as a user enters his or her name - can be exchanged in the people.io marketplace or converted into a cash donation for a partner charity.

Founder Nicholas Oliver, 29 and a former Global Creative Technical Director for Team Detroit (WPP), plans for the free app to roll out across London during the first half of 2016 and other cities in the UK / EU later in the year. people.io says it will never share an individual's personal data with third parties: 'All user data remains under licence from the consumer, with the option to opt-out and have their data deleted from the platform at any time'.

Oliver comments: 'We have all had the experience of ads following us around the web - and of products that we've recently searched for popping up adjacent to the stories that we're reading. For some of us, this feels fine, but there is also a growing sense that this could be done a lot better, with fewer messages that actually mean something to us, rather than receiving a scattergun of misjudged content'.

Web site: www.people.io .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.