BitsaboutMe: Your Right to Data Privacy

Ever since we started creating our digital identities, data privacy has been a notion under the spotlight, often alluded to but rarely fully guaranteed. As data volumes continue to grow, information manipulation, misuse, or loss are the problems we face on a daily basis. Hackers, fraudsters, governments, businesses, and organizations tend to violate our right to privacy and use our data for their own purpose, without asking for our consent. The only solution is to take over the control of every piece of information you decide to share online. 

How?

With the help of applications such as BitsaboutMe. 

What is BitsaboutMe Actually About?

BitsaboutMe is a Swiss company founded by Christian Kunz and Christophe Legendre in 2017. Both founders share the same belief – the right to privacy is a fundamental human right. They are strongly against the personal data exploitation that various companies, organizations, and authorities frequently conduct. Instead, they base their operations on Privacy by Design, which means that they use technology to achieve data security. 

The main goal of the company is to ensure that personal data stays private at all costs. For this reason, they developed an app BitsaboutMe, that lets you take control of your online data. How? It’s simple – the app lets you create your personal database only you can access. Through the app, you get insight into what information other online services store about you, and you can monitor your online behavior. The app also allows you to share your data with other companies or services and even get money for doing so, but we’ll get to this part later. The most important? You are the one who gets to choose what information you wish to share and with whom.

BitsaboutMe’s dedication to data privacy

You can rest assured that the BitsaboutMe team takes data privacy very seriously. The information you decide to share with them via the app is subject to the EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), as well as Swiss information protection laws. This guarantees that the company will never share your data with anyone unless they have your explicit consent.

What’s more, the app is not developed only to serve private users. The other idea creators had in mind was to use the app to enable fair trade of data. This means giving companies the chance to gain a competitive advantage by getting access to high-quality, targeted data willingly shared by users. This approach helps democratize fair trade and disables a handful of large companies to monopolize the data market.  

How To Use BitsaboutME Application?

Depending on the type of user you are, there are two ways you can use the BitsaboutMe app:

If you are a private user…

Once you embark on your digital journey and decide to share certain things about yourself, like your basic info, apps you use, videos you watch, or websites you visit, you have every right to know what happens with that information, who has access to it, who is using it, and for what. 

BitsaboutMe app knows that you have that right and wants to help you exercise it. The app gives you the possibility to manage and monitor your data. For the first time, you will gain full transparency about when and for what it’s being used. If you feel like it you can share your data and receive money or other rewards for that. 

Once you download the app, you will receive your own Personal Data Store (PDS) that stores all your online data. Thanks to state-of-the-art encryption, you are the only one who can access, manage, and exchange the data stored there. In fact, the encryption prevents even people from BitsaboutMe from accessing your personal information.

The beauty of the app lies in the fact that you are the sole person in charge of your data. You get information about data that online services, companies, and organizations wish to obtain from you and you choose whether you wish to share that information or not. Basically, you control who gets your data and how you want it to be used. What’s more, sharing your data with companies and organizations will earn you some money. Yes, you read that right – you will receive financial compensation if you decide to share your information with a certain business or for research purposes. Now, isn’t that simply amazing? 

If you are a company…

There are plenty of benefits that BitsaboutMe brings to companies. Firstly, obtaining consumer data directly from the users will give you the upper hand in the market. You will be the one to receive valuable, targeted information that you can use to improve your service or product. You will gain a better understanding of your customers and potential customers, current market trends, and possible gaps in the market. This knowledge can only be acquired by gathering targeted data. 

Once you create an accurate customer profile, you can tune your marketing efforts to increase customer acquisition and retention. Also, you can use this insight to offer fresh products and services and conquer new markets. Basically, if you use BitsaboutMe, you’ll create many opportunities for your business to thrive. 

All you have to do is to connect your CRM systems with the app, and you’ll be able to obtain valuable data directly from your customers. Additionally, the app allows you to have an overview of all the information you managed to gather, data queries you created, the number of users who agreed to share their data, your rewards budget, as well as data deals you offer on the Personal Data Marketplace (PDM).  

What is Their Digital Presence Like?

As a company that deals with digital identity and online data, BitsaboutMe knows the importance of taking control of your online persona. To begin with the name they chose – BitsaboutME. They decided to personalize their business by using a catchy name that people can easily identify with. However, they didn’t stop there. Instead, they incorporated their name into their domain with a clever .ME domain hack.  Another aspect is the web page design. The bitsabout.me website looks very neat. It has all the information a potential user would look for readily available. The categorization is logical, the navigation easy, and the design straightforward and contemporary looking. All in all, the site is very well designed and puts the user in the center, like the app itself.

Moreover, the company understands the importance of social media presence. They have profiles on all the most popular social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Take a look in case you wish to find out more about this amazing business. 

Bottom Line

As advocates of data privacy ourselves, we want to stress this out again – information you share online belongs exclusively to you. 

Personal data is of the highest value for each individual. Being in charge of when and how your data will be used is essential for protecting your digital identity.

Luckily for us, BitsaboutMe, a member of our own ME team, puts the control back into our hands and gives us the transparency we were looking for. 

Congrats, BitsaboutMe, we’re proud to have you on our team!