The promising return of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill

Barry O’Donohoe, Co-Founder and COO

It was promising to see the return of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill in its revised form. Having been such a trailblazer in this field, the UK has been in danger of losing its place as a country to watch as others take opportunities to leapfrog us with more ambitious Open Data plans. This Bill goes some way to provide reassurance that the Government recognises the importance of the UK grasping the horns once again of the transformative power of safe and secure data sharing for the national good.

Establishing the mechanisms for the provision of Digital Verification Services (DVS) will be a game changer for the nation. Paving the way for these services to be offered will bring multiple benefits:

• Provide a simple and frictionless way for consumers to prove their identity once, to many parties.
• Lower the costs for businesses to take on new customers.
• Free up money and resources for businesses to focus on their customers, both in terms of their experience and the products and services they can offer them.
• Ease the path for customers to shop around, compare products, leave existing suppliers and join new ones – thereby driving competition in the market.
• Provide consumers and businesses alike with extremely high levels of protection with all DVS operating according to a Trust Framework built on the highest standards of security.

It’s also encouraging to finally see some movement on exporting the capabilities of Open Banking to other sectors. Our mission at Raidiam is to ultimately create a world where secure data sharing ecosystems pave the way for everyone to be seamlessly connected to the products and services they need, so this is music to our ears.

Whilst the Bill doesn’t specify the sectors within which the new powers could or should be used, we hope the Government is ambitious and takes advantage of the massive opportunities this would create for the economy, businesses, and of course, consumers.

Establishing the mechanisms for DVS to operate will go hand in hand with ensuring the success of broader smart data sharing and the results of this could be transformative for all involved.

And there’s some great news.

The capabilities, technology and expertise to make this all happen are sitting here in the UK. Everything already exists to facilitate a world class system of digital verification and cross sector data sharing. And we know this because we designed and built it all and currently operate it in several countries.

• Our cutting-edge Trust Framework is now in its fifth iteration (the first iteration is in operation with UK’s Open Banking) and is the most advanced in existence globally.
• Our technology suite that implements the Trust Framework, Raidiam Connect, powers multiple data sharing ecosystems and is the first of its kind in the world.

Our capabilities take data sharing to another level by enabling network to network connections – which means individual ecosystems can be interoperable without giving up their own control or autonomy – the true start of cross-sector data sharing.

We’ve also succeeded in easing the ability for Third Party Providers (TPPs) to participate in data sharing ecosystems by removing much of the complexity in the registration and onboarding processes. It additionally now allows the possibility of all TPPs being auto registered to every Data Provider in the ecosystem, enabling whole market access through a single registration.

This delivers clear benefits to all parties. TPPs that have previously not been in a position to access or participate in ecosystems due to lack of resources are now able to do so. Not only does this support a thriving TPP market, but it also means increased choice and competition for consumers and ensures ecosystem controllers can offer compelling and attractive propositions compared to their competitors.

These same capabilities that are serving other countries in their quest to deliver tangible benefits to their consumers are ready to be implemented in the UK.  We have the experience, standards expertise, and technology to provide the UK with what it needs to operate the most robust and secure ecosystems and DVS and do it cost-effectively.

With this Bill things are finally moving in the right direction; we must make sure we take full advantage of the opportunities it presents us with as a country to both retain our global position in Open Finance data sharing and expand to other sectors. Here at Raidiam we’ve already done the hard work to make it all possible, let’s get cracking with delivering the benefits.