The UK’s existing data protection law gives individuals the “right to data portability” – the right to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services.
But in practice, this right is often difficult or impractical for consumers to exercise. Most consumer data is currently locked away and only accessible directly by the consumer or the original data holder (for example, the consumer’s bank).
Smart Data makes the right to data portability a reality, in order to benefit consumers and unlock innovation. It enables individual consumers and small businesses to access and share their data simply and securely with trusted, authorised third parties who can offer innovative services to them. For example to help save them time and money, or find the services most suitable for their needs.
A single sector example of Smart Data in action would involve a situation where:
Cross sector, on the other hand, is what we mean by examples of Smart Data that combine data sets from different sectors, to then offer a service to the consumer. This can be either from different sub-sectors (e.g. Banking and Insurance) or from different wider sectors (e.g. Finance and Energy):
Of course, there are many decisions to be made about how these building blocks might work in any given sector. For example:
use Open Banking as of February 2023.
now estimated to be active users of at least one open banking service.
A Smart Data scheme is the set of rules governing how Smart Data works in a particular sector, providing answers to these (and many other) questions.
Open Banking is the live example of a Smart Data scheme in the UK, covering bank current account and credit card data. As of February 2023, over 7 million consumers and small businesses are benefiting from services that use Open Banking.
But Open Banking is just the start. The government is currently seeking powers to extend its ability to introduce Smart Data schemes via the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. This would enable Ministers to introduce interoperable Smart Data schemes across sectors, ultimately establishing a Smart Data economy.
New Smart Data schemes will enable innovation by giving consumers real control over their data, creating opportunities for innovators to offer creative new services that use this data for the consumer’s benefit.
In this Discovery Challenge, we are seeking to identify the most promising cross-sector Smart Data use case ideas that could make a difference for consumers or small businesses and for wider society.
