A Life Management Platform (LMP) allows individuals to access all relevant information from their daily life and manage its lifecycle, in particular data that is sensitive and typically paper-bound today, like bank account information, insurance information, health information, or the key number of their car.

Three years ago, at EIC 2012, one of the major topics was Life Management Platforms (LMPs), which was described as “a concept which goes well beyond the limited reach of most of today’s Personal Data Stores and Personal Clouds. It will fundamentally affect the way individuals share personal data and thus will greatly influence social networks, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), eGovernment, and many other areas.”

In talking about LMPs, Martin Kuppinger wrote: “Life Management Platforms will change the way individuals deal with sensitive information like their health data, insurance data, and many other types of information – information that today frequently is paper-based or, when it comes to personal opinions, only in the mind of the individuals. They will enable new approaches for privacy and security-aware sharing of that information, without the risk of losing control of that information. A key concept is “informed pull” which allows consuming information from other parties, neither violating the interest of the individual for protecting his information nor the interest of the related party/parties.” (Advisory Note: Life Management Platforms: Control and Privacy for Personal Data – 70608)

It’s taken longer than we thought, but the fundamental principle that a person should have direct control of the information about themselves is finally taking hold. In particular, the work of the User Managed Access (UMA) group through the Kantara Initiative should be noted.

Fueled by the rise of cloud services (especially personal, public cloud services) and the explosive growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) which all leads to the concept we’ve identified as the Internet of Everything and Everyone (IoEE), Life Management Platforms – although not known by that name – are beginning to take their first, hesitant baby steps with everyone from the tech guru to the person in the street. The “platform” tends to be a smart, mobile device with a myriad of applications and services (known as “apps”) but the bottom line is that the data, the information, is, at least nominally, under control of the person using that platform. And the real platform is the cloud-based services, fed and fueled by public, standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) which provide the data for that mobile device everyone is using.

Social media, too, has had an effect. Using Facebook login, for example, to access other services people are learning to look closely at what those services are requesting (“your timeline, list of friends, birthday”) and, especially, what the service won’t do (“the service will not post on your behalf”). There’s still work to be done there, as the conditions are not negotiable yet but must be either accepted or rejected – but more flexible protocols will emerge to cover that. There’s also, of course, the fact that Facebook itself “spies” on your activity. Slowly, grudgingly, that is changing – but we’re not there yet. The next step is for enterprises to begin to provide the necessary tools that will enable the casual user to more completely control their data – and the release of their data to others – while protecting their privacy. Google (via Android), Apple (via IOS) and even Microsoft (thru Windows Mobile) are all in a position to become the first mover in this area – but only if they’re ready to fundamentally change their business model or complement their business models by an alternative approach. Indeed, some have taken tentative steps in that direction, while others seem to be headed in the opposite direction. Google and Facebook (and Microsoft, via Bing) do attempt to monetize your data. Apple tends to tell you what you want, then not allow you to change it.

But there are suggestions that users may be willing to pay for more control over their information- either in cash, or in licensing its re-use under strict guidelines. So who will step up? We shouldn’t ignore Facebook, of course, but – without a mobile operating system – they are at a disadvantage compared to the other three. And maybe, lurking in the wings, there’s an as yet undiscovered (or overlooked – yes, there are some interesting approaches) vendor ready to jump in and seize the market. After all, that’s what Google did (surprising Yahoo!) and Facebook did (supplanting MySpace) so there is precedent for a well-designed (i.e., using Privacy by Design principles) start-up to sweep this market. Someone will, we’re convinced of that. And just as soon as we’ve identified the key player, we’ll let you know so you can be prepared.

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