Project
RCA Service Design Project about Citizen Data Empowerment
My Role
Problem analysis, User research, User test, Workshop facilitator, Business model and market analysis, UI design, Visual Design
Myda
Myda | Where you control your data
Myda is a digital assistant that helps people understand the personal impact of data collection and enables them to opt-out where possible.
The Problem
The current data ecosystem is such that private companies and governments collect data in silos, with citizens as passive data points. Data is gathered and owned by public and private institutions with the promise of improving citizens life. While their quality of life can certainly be improved through this, they are an indirect participant rather than a mutually beneficial stakeholder in the smart city power structure.
current data ecosystem
Given movements for individual's rights to control personal data, especially in smart cities where digital identity is more complex, citizens need a way to understand, control, and benefit from the data being collected on them.
In analyzing the current market, the GDPR regulations are reactionary and lag behind technological development. Additionally, the market lacks a way for citizens to understand the world of data and take control.
So how we might empower citizens to better understand and control their personal data so that they can make more informed decisions in an increasingly digital urban environment?
The Service
Myda helps citizens more easily approach their personal data, make informed decisions and have a greater peace of mind through:
- Data ecosystem education
- A clear breakdown of who is collecting data and the personal impact
- Proactive guidance to opt-out
With Myda, citizens are more digitally conscious and informed, creating bottom-up pressure for institutions to more widely adopt ethical data collection practices.
Myda creates a new data economy
Myda is structured as an independent stewardship that works towards the public interest. Its data standards are in line with policies set by the UN around data protections, and it's funded by the EU. Myda’s presence helps shift the digital ecosystem.
Instead of a transactional and mostly one-sided relationship, with Myda it becomes one in which the citizen creates accountability via an open data economy, leading to more trusting relationships between citizens and institutions that improve collection practices.