Digital records aren't new. In fact they've been around for years, but it's only recently that their market value has become apparent. How we navigate the web when we log on, the sites we go to and how we interact with certain types of content are like footprints, providing crucial information about who we are and our habits. The more we use the web, the more useful our digital identities become. Arguably the personalisation of our online selves has the potential to become the most valuable commodity of the modern age.
Not quite sure? Just take a minute to think about how much of your digital persona already exists and where that information is currently stored.
Right now, many of our daily actions are either occurring digitally, stored digitally or are affected by digital devices or mechanisms. In almost all the things we do, we are creating and leaving a digital trail. More often than not, this digital trail is stored and in almost every case, this is done without knowledge of where it goes or how it may be used in future. From the news app we download to our iPad on the way to the train station, the ticket we purchase, the contactless payment for our morning coffee, the RSS feeds we subscribe too - everything is recorded, catalogued and filed away somewhere in the ether.
Whilst we might not think about this every waking minute of every waking day, for most us there is a vague awareness that this happens. There are a host of changes afoot to try and block or curtail the ability of businesses to capture, monitor, store and use this data. Fear is used as the main fuel; fear of theft, fear of deception, fear of the unknown of what might happen if...
What if instead you and I want to take complete ownership of all this data and use it for our own benefit?
We will of course want it to be safe and secure, we will want control of it and access to it, to use it when and how we want. Above all though, we will want it to be useful, because ultimately, most of us are united by an inherent interest in making our lives easier.
It's this driving force of users pulling their own data towards them and being in control of pushing it out to who they choose and when they choose it, that will shape the future of this, the most valuable traded commodity of the future - our digital self.
All of our data will be able to be contained in one place. We will decide and control who gets it, when they can use it and for what purpose. Like a huge digital self-storage unit in the cloud.
Brands today operate with a fairly limited view of who we are, likes, dislikes and so on. And that niggles. Just because I'm looking at one book that John Brown has also clicked on doesn't mean I want to see everything he perused. But using my digital identity I will be able to give the companies I want to interact with the real information, based on my actual personality - rather than a hotchpotch of assumed facts. This will enable them to deliver a superior service because they'll understand the real me.
We are an immensely rich collection of many parts including experiences, emotions and knowledge. To begin to deliver the serendipity of this digital dimension of the future, systems will need to seamlessly unlock the library of us in order to understand the real essence of who we are.