More than 50% of people in the UK are supportive of sharing their DNA for research purposes. This is arguably the most private of all data, and yet more than half of the population is happy to share their individual data if it is going to be used for the greater good. This is an important concept, as data becomes more powerful when there are larger quantities of it available for more scientists to study.
More broadly, the pharmaceutical industry has been gradually opening up to clinical trial transparency and data sharing as a way to provide new treatments to patients more quickly. In fact, the non-profit organisation Bioethics International produces a ranking of the major pharma companies in conjunction with Harvard University.
With regulation (correctly) implementing more control over individual’s data in their own hands, it is important to be able to articulate why big data and data sharing are powerful tools. This will allow people to make more informed decisions about sharing their data, while at the same time not moving backwards when it comes to our ability to use data for the common good. This is not about getting people to opt in to cookies to target them with advertising, rather it is about explaining how powerful crowdsourced information can be.
We work in the B2B space, and rarely if ever deal with personal information, but often see a similar phenomenon. Companies feel that their data is proprietary or are concerned about privacy at the expense of fully utilising their data. However, much of this is exhaust data; data that is not utilised for the core purpose of the business. And yet has potential significant value to grow other, non-competitive companies’ product lines or service offerings, even cross sector.
It will be interesting to see how the data landscape evolves over the next few years. The B2B landscape will continue to mature and the overall alternative data marketplace will become common place. Alqami is helping to drive the growth of this marketplace through helping our clients navigate the licensing of alternative data, either into their organisation or outwardly to create a new revenue stream.
This article was taken from our February 'Fields of Data' newsletter - sign up here to receive the monthly digest.
