Ctrl-Shift Releases Personal Data Store Report

30 April 2012 – London: Market analyst and advisory company Ctrl-Shift today released an independent research report entitled Personal Data Stores: A Market Review. Personal data stores (PDS) are a new online tool than enable individuals to aggregate and share their own personal data on their own behalf. The report highlights that PDS are rapidly becoming a vibrant new market with a possible value of £1billion by 2016 in the UK alone.

Personal data stores (PDS) give consumers powerful information management and analysis tools that have traditionally only been available to companies in the commercial sector. They have the potential to transform the relationship between individuals and organisations, not only helping individuals better maintain their privacy, but enabling them to better understand their own behaviours, improve their decisions and manage aspects of their lives, e.g., ‘my money’, ‘my home’, ‘my health’.

“This is a market whose time has come. Personal data stores can help individuals unlock the value from their data, whether it’s analysing electricity usage to check we’re on the best tariff, revealing how much we’re spending at certain retail outlets or keeping our personal information in a secure location under our control. The potential is limitless,” said Alan Mitchell, Ctrl-Shift’s Strategy Director.

PDSs are one way “father of the Internet” Tim Berners-Lee’s call to “give our data back” could work in real life. However, UK Government-inspired data handbacks including the midata Program, in which tens of millions people will be able to receive their personal data back from finance, utilities, telcos and other businesses, look set to be the new market’s most crucial catalyst, according to Ctrl-Shift’s research.

Ctrl-Shift believes the rapid development of the PDS market – over a dozen different PDSs will have launched by the end of this year – will trigger big changes in the way individuals and organisations deal with each other, as individuals assert more control over their data.

There is significant behind-the-scenes interest among large IT and data sector corporations with AT&T, O2 and Microsoft expressing interest or developing propositions. However, currently angel or venture-funded start-up companies dominate.

“Our report is a wake-up call to the vast potential of the PDS market. It’s not a question of if, but when, consumers start taking control of their own data. The UK is in a great position to show the world that suppliers and consumers sharing data means a better deal all round,” concludes Mitchell.

The report from Ctrl-Shift is an in-depth examination of the PDS market’s key players and their service offerings, their developing business models and market entry strategies, data sectors and functionality, success factors, current barriers to market, projected market development and market forecasts including market size estimates. The report also offers advice on how organisations should respond to the new PDS market, particularly those whose businesses rely on status quo approaches to collecting and using personal data.