mirelationship with midata

"Today’s most successful businesses are the ones that are creative about building customer relationships". That's what Jo Swinson says. It's not obviously true. But she's the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) minister in charge of consumer affairs and that's how BIS have chosen to try to sell midata.

The consultancy advising BIS on midata, Ctrl-Shift, reckons that these days "the challenge (and opportunity) is to start building an information sharing relationship with customers where both sides use data sharing to save time, cut costs and be more efficient – and to add new value". If you're in any doubt, just remember that "far-sighted managers recognise the ground is shifting under their feet. If they don’t adapt they risk medium to long-term isolation and marginalisation". Are you far-sighted? Or isolated and marginalised.

That message is reiterated by Mydex, the personal data store (PDS) company. Mydex is closely related to both Ctrl-Shift and BIS and they say that PDSs "transform relationships between individuals and organisations to both sides’ benefit" (p.7). And from his position on the midata strategy board, the chairman of Mydex seems to have convinced BIS that midata needs PDSs to work.

The relationship in question is generally between individuals who buy products and services and the companies that sell them. But according to the Young Foundation last November Mydex and its PDSs will also transform the relationship between "the citizen and the state" – "It is a bit like flipping a world where companies engage in ‘customer relationship management’ into one in which individuals engage in ‘vendor relationship management’. Now the citizen is in charge".

And that same promise is made by the Cabinet Office in connection with data-sharing: "Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude today [25 April 2012] made a statement in response [to an article in the Guardian], pointing to the Government’s commitment to putting the citizen in charge, not the state".

Do you believe Mr Maude? Do you even understand what he's saying? You'll be "in charge", not the state – what does that mean?

Are the Young Foundation right when they suggest that the result of sharing your data with, say, Nestlé will be to put you in charge of the company? In what way will telling Nestlé that you like Gold Blend^® be to your benefit? What are Mydex talking about? And do you think that Nestlé will be isolated and marginalised if you don't tell them?

Is Jo Swinson right that the most successful companies are those that build a relationship with you and that midata will make the economy grow? Before you answer, would it help to know that BIS's own economist working on midata – David Miller – isn't convinced?

Do you want to be badgered all day every day with a lot of nosy questions about your Gold Blend^® consumption? If you ask Norman Lamb, Jo Swinson's predecessor at BIS, what all this relationship lark amounts to, that seems to be the intention: "midata also creates opportunities for new markets to develop where businesses help consumers use their data to make better consumption decisions and lifestyle choices" (p.10).

And how much do you think you'll have to pay for all this helpful lifestyle advice?

What we seem to have here is a concerted campaign whose stated objectives give rise to a lot of questions the answers to which are not obvious. The only effect of this campaign that is clear is that you will hand over all/a lot of your personal data to companies and government departments. Is that what you would like to do? Why?

Remember that Mydex is not just a PDS supplier – it is also one of the UK's eight appointed "identity providers". As part of Mr Maude's Identity Assurance Programme (IDAP), Mydex's job will be to confirm that you are you when you apply for Universal Credit, for example, or when you attempt any other digital-by-default on-line transaction with the government.

You don't think, do you, that a PDS is actually a sort of dematerialised ID card? And that that's actually why all the jovial souls above want you to organise all your data for them? To make IDAP work. At least that would make sense, unlike all the strange claims above.

IDAP was meant to be "fully operational" by March 2013, four months ago. That's what Mr Maude's Government Digital Service (GDS) promised, and there's no sign of it yet. Once these chaps have got used to missing deadlines it tends to become habit-forming. So there's no need to hurry. Take your time before making your mind up.

But if you do ever find yourself being tempted to sign up to midata, do remember that it's not a trivial decision, as Mydex themselves warned everyone the other day ("MIL" = midata Innovation Lab):

MIL volunteers "offer up their body for science"; ie share Midata with MIL organisations. Thus a few help make it safe for many. — Mydex CIC (@MydexCIC) July 9, 2013

mirelationship with midata

"Today’s most successful businesses are the ones that are creative about building customer relationships". That's what Jo Swinson says. It's not obviously true. But she's the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) minister in charge of consumer affairs and that's how BIS have chosen to try to sell midata.

midata – dumb marketing

Do you feel resentful? Permanently? About everything?

Are you susceptible to blatant mercenary manipulation?

Are you a helpless consumer? You see it and you have to buy it?

Then midata is the scheme for you. Here's the Daily Mirror on 17 November 2012 trying to sell the scheme to you in its Money • Personal finance • Shopping section:

Quids in: How new Midata scheme will create your own personal data bank Imagine always getting the cheapest deal on anything you buy, from clothes to energy bills and mobile phone contracts. Imagine never having to worry about keeping receipts or warranty documents when you buy something new for your home. And imagine being able to check that you are always buying the healthiest and cheapest food. That is what the future may hold under a new Government scheme to make firms give you the data they keep on your spending habits. At the moment firms can gather information about a customer and use it for themselves – without sharing it with the person whose details they have stored. The scheme would allow people to access this information and download it on to their “midata” web account. They could then key the data into consumer websites to find money-saving deals on everything from bank accounts to a big night out. It is hoped the scheme will eventually include supermarkets to help customers eat more healthily by showing the fat and salt content as well as all the best food deals. Consumer affairs minister Jo Swinson said that the “midata” scheme is about turning the tables on big retailers and putting power into the hands of consumers. “Many businesses reap huge commercial benefits from the information they gather from consumers’ daily spending patterns,” she said. “Why shouldn’t consumers also benefit from this by having access to their own data to enable them to make better choices?”

Perhaps when Lord Leveson's recommendations are implemented all journalism will be like this – from Whitehall PR handout to printed page/iNewspaper app with nary an intervening intellectual delay.

Until that day, remember that with midata the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) are luring you into a dangerous place, putting all your personal data on the web, in the cloud, with a trusted third party you've never met and have no reason to trust. You know that. You know that the web is a dangerous place. There's no reason to believe that midata will save you money or help the UK economy to grow. BIS know that. They're just doing GDS's dirty work for them. (GDS is the Government Digital Service.)

You may have some residual doubts. Perhaps the banks and the major retailers really do know so much about you that they can predict your every whim and take advantage of you? There are mooncalves who believe that. But do you?

You shouldn't.

Consider four cases:

1. Three months ago DMossEsq booked a stay at a hotel in Madrid. He made the booking on the hotel's website. Then he opened the Guardian newspaper website. And there, alongside the article he wanted to read, was an advertisement for that very same hotel. Spooky? A bit. Maybe. Clearly Google was keeping track of his web browsing and serving up ads accordingly. But never mind spooky, it was just stupid. DMossEsq had already booked the hotel. The ad was too late. And useless.
2. That's Google. How about a brilliant retailer like Amazon? Maybe they're better at this marketing lark? Not obviously. Some years ago, DMossEsq bought a TV through Amazon. Then Amazon started sending him emails trying to inveigle him into buying a TV. Too late. He'd already bought one. As Amazon should have known.
3. OK, if not the retailers, how about the banks? They know just about everything DMossEsq spends his money on. Are they more effective? No. One of DMossEsq's bank accounts went dormant a few months ago, there had been no movement for several years. The bank informed him that they were going to close the account. We agreed where the balance should be transferred to, an active account, the money was duly transferred, the old account was duly closed – everything tickety-boo. Then a glossy sheet of marketing turned up in the post identifying the closed account and saying "you have been pre-selected for a Barclaycard Cashback Business credit card". Brilliant. A credit card on a closed account that the bank knew was closed because they'd just closed it.
4. Do you know anyone who has ever bought anything from an ad-server? Goods? Services? Anything? Ever?

Do you still feel resentful at the power these suppliers have over you in virtue of their knowledge of your spending habits? That's what GDS and BIS want you to feel. They think you're stupid.

Or do you just feel sorry about all us schmuks paying higher retail prices because hotels, shops and banks are wasting their budget on useless marketing services from search engine companies, on-line retailers and whoever Barclays have outsourced their direct marketing to?

midata – dumb marketing

Do you feel resentful? Permanently? About everything?

Are you susceptible to blatant mercenary manipulation?

Are you a helpless consumer? You see it and you have to buy it?

Cybersecurity – good news at last, from midata

Cybercrime
The magnificent power of the web is a double-edged sword. It makes it easy for us all to do our banking on-line. And it makes it easy for cybercriminals to defraud us. Huge brains are working on the side of law-abiding web users and they're holding the line. Thanks to them, fraud is held down, just, to acceptable levels. That could change. Huge brains are working on committing fraud and if they make any serious progress, eBanking and eCommerce in general could have to stop – there is no law of nature that says that eCommerce must be feasible. The web is a dangerous place to do business.

midata
Nevertheless, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) want to "empower" consumers by getting us all to store all our transactions on-line, on the web, in the cloud, on the servers of unknown so-called "trusted" third parties or their sub-contractors. Is that a good idea? Given the incidence of cybercrime, aren't BIS behaving irresponsibly? With midata, they're inciting their parishioners to take serious and unnecessary risks. They're trying to take powers to force banks, phone companies, energy companies, retailers and others to put all our transaction data on the web.

"Oi, you two, Tesco, Sainsbury's, get over 'ere",

BIS are effectively saying,
pointing at the flames,

"and bring the petrol".

Impact assessment
Luckily, this proposed legislation requires an impact assessment, listing the putative benefits and the associated risks, please see Impact Assessment for midata – in case of any enquiries, ring Craig Belsham or David Miller.

You remember David Miller. He's the BIS economist who said at the 9 August 2012 open forum that it's very difficult to say if midata would boost the economy. It might. It might not.

Anyway, they're onto it. Under Key assumptions/sensitivities/risks on p.4 it says:

Consumer transaction data held by firms can be valuable commercial information. There is a risk that the existence of a power to compel firms to release this data to consumers may reduce their incentive to collect the information. To minimise this risk the power will only refer to ‘raw’ factual information. Any extension of the sectors beyond energy, mobile telecoms and personal banking/ credit cards will be subject to criteria aimed at promoting price transparency. Consumers will have more of their information in an easily accessible format this could pose a risk of an increase in identity theft or fraud.

"Consumers will have more of their information in an easily accessible format this could pose a risk of an increase in identity theft or fraud" – quite. So, is midata off the menu? Too risky?

Not a bit of it.

Solved
Turn to para.123 on p.48:

123. Consumers will increasingly have more of their information in an easily accessible format. With increasing amounts of this data held on home computers or with third party intermediaries, it may increase the likelihood of identity theft or fraud. This may lead to consumers increasing their own cyber security to mitigate this risk. The Government and members of the midata Interoperability Board are undertaking a programme of work to identify and address these issues, which will conclude before any secondary legislation is brought forward.

"The Government and members of the midata Interoperability Board are undertaking a programme of work to identify and address these issues" – sorted. It's hard to think of any sizeable organisation in the world from the Pentagon on down who won't be ringing Craig and David.

Cybersecurity – good news at last, from midata

Cybercrime
The magnificent power of the web is a double-edged sword. It makes it easy for us all to do our banking on-line. And it makes it easy for cybercriminals to defraud us. Huge brains are working on the side of law-abiding web users and they're holding the line. Thanks to them, fraud is held down, just, to acceptable levels. That could change. Huge brains are working on committing fraud and if they make any serious progress, eBanking and eCommerce in general could have to stop – there is no law of nature that says that eCommerce must be feasible. The web is a dangerous place to do business.

midata
Nevertheless, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) want to "empower" consumers by getting us all to store all our transactions on-line, on the web, in the cloud, on the servers of unknown so-called "trusted" third parties or their sub-contractors. Is that a good idea? Given the incidence of cybercrime, aren't BIS behaving irresponsibly? With midata, they're inciting their parishioners to take serious and unnecessary risks. They're trying to take powers to force banks, phone companies, energy companies, retailers and others to put all our transaction data on the web.

"Oi, you two, Tesco, Sainsbury's, get over 'ere",

BIS are effectively saying,
pointing at the flames,

"and bring the petrol".

PRESS RELEASE: midata – time for BIS to answer the questions

PRESS RELEASE

To:

Home Office

OIG (re US-VISIT)

IDABC (re OSCIE)

China (re Golden Shield)

Pakistan (re NADRA)

FBI (re NGI)

UIDAI (re Aadhaar)

Agencies

midata – time for BIS to answer the questions

19 November 2012

When midata was announced a year ago Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s Technology Correspondent, asked “what's the catch for consumers and why is the government getting involved”? Good questions.

Lifestyle choices

... individual users were not yet being allowed to exploit all the information relating to them to make their lives easier. Armed with the information that social networks and other web giants hold about us, he said, computers will be able to "help me run my life, to guess what I need next, to guess what I should read in the morning, because it will know not only what's happening out there but also what I've read already, and also what my mood is, and who I'm meeting later on".

Thus Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web, interviewed by the Guardian in April.

Slightly dotty, of course – your computer will know what mood you’re in? But the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) are trying to promote their midata initiative and it suits their purpose to say, in a press release the other day, that midata will allow consumers to “make better lifestyle choices”.

Even if it was true, what business would it be of the government’s?

None. If there’s a demand for lifestyle software, let the private sector provide it.

Economic growth

BIS also claim that midata would be “good for growth in the economy”. Strange, because at the 9 August 2012 midata open forum David Miller, a BIS economist, was asked how much midata would make the economy grow by and answered, it’s very difficult to say what the macro-economic effects of midata would be.

Banks, phone companies and energy companies already provide us with detailed statements, on-line and on paper, they have done for decades, and the economy isn’t growing. So what’s new about midata?

Personal data stores (PDSs)

Answer – PDSs, please see para.2.19, p.24 of BIS's midata 2012 review and consultation. BIS want us all to have PDSs, databases storing all of our transaction data, which can be processed to make our lifestyle choices for us and which identify us uniquely.

We wouldn’t be expected to maintain the PDSs ourselves. That would be the job of so-called “trusted third parties”, who would store all our personal data on the web, where it would be continuously updated by permanent links with all our suppliers.

What personal data? The BIS press release refers us to a document of theirs, A midata future: 10 ways it could shape your choices. The answer seems to be any contracts you have entered into, any warranties you have taken out, your driving licence, your educational qualifications, your CRB report, your bank accounts, the clothes you buy, your gas and electricity usage and your neighbours’ usage, too, your health records, entertainment preferences and favourite restaurants.

It’s an extensive set of data about you. midata may not help the economy to grow but, in the PDSs which it relies on, it would provide you with an on-line ID card.

Trusted third parties

Who are the third parties you’re meant to trust with all this personal data? Only one is regularly mentioned and most people will never have heard of it – Mydex – so what reason is there to trust it?

At the 9 August 2012 midata open forum Kirstin Green, a deputy director at BIS, mentioned that the chairman of Mydex sits on the BIS midata strategy board. To understand BIS’ midata proposal it helps to understand Mydex is therefore written with considerable authority, as is Making midata work for you.

Identity assurance

Actually, you may have heard of Mydex. You may have read the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) press release about the Identity Assurance Programme last week, Providers announced for online identity scheme. Mydex is one of the seven “identity providers” appointed for the UK last week by DWP. The idea is that in Whitehall’s new digital-by-default world, if you want to register for benefits, you need an identity provider to vouch for you, to say that you are you – a PDS is an ID card.

----------

They couldn’t answer them last year. Let’s see if BIS can answer Mr Cellan-Jones’s questions now.

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About David Moss
David Moss has worked as an IT consultant since 1981. The past 9 years have been spent campaigning against the Home Office's plans to introduce government ID cards into the UK. It must now be admitted that the Home Office are much better at convincing people that these plans are a bad idea than anyone else, including David Moss.

Press contacts: David Moss, BCSL@blueyonder.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE: midata – time for BIS to answer the questions

PRESS RELEASE

To:

Home Office

OIG (re US-VISIT)

IDABC (re OSCIE)

China (re Golden Shield)

Pakistan (re NADRA)

FBI (re NGI)

UIDAI (re Aadhaar)

Agencies

midata – time for BIS to answer the questions

19 November 2012

When midata was announced a year ago Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s Technology Correspondent, asked “what's the catch for consumers and why is the government getting involved”? Good questions.

midata, the loneliest initiative in Whitehall – 5

BIS have no communicable reason whatever
to support their contention that midata would expand the economy

Giving people access to their transaction data will cause the UK economy to grow. That is the logic behind midata according to the department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS).

It may seem obvious to you that the argument is valid. If you're a mooncalf.

But it isn't obvious to David Miller.

David Miller is an economist at BIS. He attended the 9 August 2012 open forum on midata and was asked what reason there is to believe that accessing our transaction data would result in an expanded economy.

Properly brought up, he answered truthfully: "obviously there would be costs at first, setting up midata, and running costs thereafter, and the expected competition could have the effect of driving prices down but the general feeling is that in the end the economy would grow as a result". By how much? "It's very difficult if not impossible to say what the macroeconomic effect would be."

No notes were taken and Mr Miller's words here are paraphrased but the implication is clear – they're flying blind. BIS have no communicable reason whatever to support their contention that midata would expand the economy.

midata, the loneliest initiative in Whitehall – 5

BIS have no communicable reason whatever
to support their contention that midata would expand the economy

Giving people access to their transaction data will cause the UK economy to grow. That is the logic behind midata according to the department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS).

It may seem obvious to you that the argument is valid. If you're a mooncalf.

But it isn't obvious to David Miller.

midata, the loneliest initiative in Whitehall – 1

You will recall midata, the initiative being sponsored by Vince Cable's Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS).

At least you will if you have that annoying capacity for retaining trivial information which afflicts some people.

For the rest of you, a refresher ...

midata is founded on the questionable belief that if the companies we deal with would only hand back all the details of business we have transacted with them in a standard, portable, digital format, then the economy would grow. These personal data stores (PDSs), so it is said, would foster innovation and competition and they would drive prices down and quality up. And we proletarians, armed with the record of our purchases, could at last start to make rational choices.

What kind of rational choices? At one end of the scale, fairly sensible ones, such as whether to switch to a different electricity supplier. At the other end, midata seems to be aimed at under-employed narcissists fascinated by how much coffee they drink, and chronic exhibitionists who want to let everyone else know when they mow the lawn:

Tallyzoo, a service dedicated to self monitoring, allows users to measure anything from their caffeine intake to the number of times they cut their grass. Users collect data using a mobile device or website program which creates interactive flashbased graphs enabling them to spot trends and patterns in their consumption habits, work, health and fitness goals. Data is manipulated so that users can share statistics and compare the end results.

The midata prospectus was for a voluntary scheme but its advocates are surprisingly tetchy about suppliers who won't join in, please see for example Government slams [mobile phone] operators for failing to sign up to Midata hub.

With next to no take-up among suppliers and next to no interest from consumers and no PDSs, clearly midata was in a bit of a mess under the nominal leadership of Ed Davey, the Lib Dem MP for Kingston and Surbiton, and minister for employment relations, consumer and postal affairs at BIS.

Then it got into more of a mess, when it lost its sponsor – Mr Davey went to Energy after Chris Huhne had to resign.

But the orphan midata didn't die. There's a new minister ready to bring it up, Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk. And there's a review of midata progress to date and there's a public consultation to look forward to and there are three open forums you can attend at the London offices of BIS on 9, 16 and 23 August 2012.

DMossEsq attended the first forum for you and strongly recommends that you attend the other two. The event was hosted by Kirstin Green, a deputy director at BIS, flanked by David Miller, a BIS economist, and Gemma Lobb, another consumer empowerment strategist. So that's three of them – three BIS people – and there were three of us. Yes, three. Such is the interest inspired by midata.

Please try to get along to 1 Victoria St London SW1H 0ET. Please help. Kirstin, David and Gemma are utterly charming. It's not their fault that they've been landed with midata, a hopeless and friendless and pointless initiative on which their talents are indubitably wasted, and DMossEsq simply can't stand the idea of no-one turning up to their party on 16 and 23 August.

midata, the loneliest initiative in Whitehall – 1

You will recall midata, the initiative being sponsored by Vince Cable's Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS).

At least you will if you have that annoying capacity for retaining trivial information which afflicts some people.

For the rest of you, a refresher ...