Award: Cozy Cloud as a MyData operator

Céline Steyer -

As the CEOs of US data giants face inquiry in the country’s senate, an alternative to data-hoarding by the few and the powerful is emerging. In an unprecedented collaboration across competitors from all corners of the world, 16 organisations have emerged as the inaugural wave of awardees of MyData Operator 2020. These forward-thinking organisations have chosen to pool their experience and expertise in order to pave the way for responsible personal data ecosystems which are designed from the ground up to empower the people themselves.

We believe open ecosystems which provide people real choices between good alternatives are the new normal for personal data and digital services that rely on it. The current situation, investigated by the US senate, is unsustainable both from a human and a market perspective, explains Teemu Ropponen, General manager of MyData Global, the organisation behind the award.

Today, Cozy Cloud was awarded the inaugural status of MyData Operator 2020. The award was given to 16 world-leading organisations from 12 countries, all working for humans-centric approaches to personal data.

The MyData Operator 2020 Award was created by the internationally recognised nonprofit MyData Global. The award acknowledges organisations that place the individual at the centre of personal data about them, provide tools to help them manage personal data, and have the individual as the primary beneficiary of this data.

A MyData operator, as described in the white paper Understanding MyData Operators, is a provider of infrastructure for personal data management and a key element in creating sustainable ecosystems for fair and ethical use of personal data. MyData operators provide interoperability at the technical, informational and governance levels to support the flow of personal data across services. They are examples of a human-centric approach to what the recent EU data strategy calls “novel data intermediaries” and which are set to play a critical role in the provision of the strategy’s vision of data spaces.

Organisations applying for MyData Operator 2020 status were required to demonstrate how they create agency for human-centric data control, and how data and value flow in their ecosystems. To be considered for the award, these organisations had to show how their services have the potential to interoperate within the ecosystem, and each other.

Radical collaboration for human-centric data control

The awarded organisations are working together with their competitors on areas of mutual interest to create a successful, interoperable personal data ecosystem.

MyData Global congratulates awardees for their integrity, dedication, and openness in this unprecedented sharing of information that goes far beyond the requirements of any regulation. Ultimately, it is individuals who will benefit from this shared understanding of MyData operators – with increased transparency, better choices, and more innovative, responsible services, explains Joss Langford, co-lead of the MyData Operators Thematic Group and the lead editor for Understanding MyData Operators white paper.

The 16 organisations awarded MyData Operator 2020 status represent multiple countries and service types. Some offer broad services directly to individuals, some have very focused offerings in just one sector, while some provide technologies and infrastructure for others to build human-centric services. They can now use the MyData Operator 2020 logo and assert that they have been 'awarded the status of MyData Operator 2020 by MyData Global in recognition of their operation of human-centric infrastructure for personal data management and sharing.'

There will be future opportunities for organisations to apply for MyData Operator 2020 status in September and November of this year. Moving forward into 2021, the award criteria will develop to strengthen the requirements to build data flows between services and further enhance transparency on the journey of interoperability and the open ecosystems it enables.

To download the white paper now and follow updates from the MyData operators community visit: https://mydata.org/operators/

To join MyData Global: www.mydata.org/join/

About Cozy Cloud

Cozy Cloud provides users with a personal cloud, Cozy.
French and open source, Cozy is a human-centric and privacy-respectful digital home, in which users collect all of their data expanding their digital possibilities with personalized services. Data are spread in silos on the Web and until now out of control of the most legitimate to own them: individuals.

It aims at giving back to users their personal data and help them into managing it through data connectors and functional applications.

Open source, Cozy can be examined by experts and is "forkable" when necessary and moveable in just a few clicks. That's exactly why users can trust Cozy: "You will stay because you can leave" is one of Cozy Cloud mantras.

Cozy gives users the possibility of having a personal assistant that is not an advertising assistant like Alexa, Google Home or Amazon Echo.
Cozy is a way of using data to emancipate, rather than manipulate users. A big change for the paradigm of data!

About MyData Global

MyData Global is an award-winning international nonprofit. The purpose of MyData Global is to empower individuals by improving their right to self-determination regarding their personal data. MyData Global has nearly 100 organisation members and over 500 individual members across industries, and from over 50 countries, on six continents. The nonprofit facilitates the MyData community of several thousand personal data experts and enthusiasts.

MyData is described in the recently published EU data strategy as a promising initiative for empowering citizens through exercising their digital rights.

About MyData Operators Thematic Group

The MyData Operators Thematic Group seeks to promote the MyData operator approach to human-centric personal data management and to contribute to a common understanding of that approach both within the MyData community and more widely. We bring together the best minds to provide thought leadership to inform technological and business initiatives. We focus on practical aspects of technology and governance to make the operation of infrastructures for personal data sharing, use and management easier and more human-centric, with the long-term goal of establishing full interoperability between operators. We meet regularly and create publications to support operators, other MyData members, and the global personal data community. We seek to inspire the development of human-centric operator technologies, business models, and public policy that embody the MyData principles and to identify opportunities for collaboration.

For more information contact

Steyer Céline
Cozy Cloud
celine@cozycloud.cc // presse@cozycloud.cc
@cozycloud

Teemu Ropponen
General manager, MyData Global
teemu.ropponen@mydata.org
Phone +358 40 525 5153
@troppone

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