Start-Up Promises to Put Consumers in Control of Personal Data

A new start-up company, Personal.com, is debuting its first product – a web and mobile data vault that it says will help consumers “reclaim ownership of their personal data.”

Shane Green, the company's co-founder and CEO, said the company's goal is to “change current practices around data ownership, privacy and identity” in favor of the consumer.

“We think people will look back in a few years and wonder how companies ever thought they owned our personal data,” Green said.

The product is designed to let consumers organize, find and give permission-based access to their data.

The company's website says the service will be free to consumers, except when they choose to make money from their data, at which time Personal will charge a fee of 10% or less.

And just how would consumers make money from their personal data?

“Companies already spend billions trying to reach you through advertising. They will pay you directly to tell you about products your data suggests you would find relevant,” the company's site says. “Think of us as a matchmaker, helping you anonymously find interesting opportunities while monetizing your non-sensitive data in a secure, opt-in, permissions-based system.”

There are some pretty big names behind the Washington, DC-based company, including AOL co-founder Steve Case, Allen & Company and Ted Leonsis. The former head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Jon Dudas, developed the legal framework for the product and is on the company's board of advisors.