Microsoft tests feature to allow users to control their personal data

Microsoft dips a toe into the personal information economy

Microsoft is working on a personal data store that allows users to control any data produced by them, including the opportunity monetise their data.

The project called 'Bali' is in private development. It is described as a dashboard that puts users "in control of all data collected about them".

"The bank will enable users to store all data (raw and inferred) generated by them. It will allow the user to visualize, manage, control, share and monetize the data," Microsoft explains.

Currently developers are training Bali to use such data generated from different websites, starting with those involved in the Open Data Initiative of which Microsoft is a founding member alongside Adobe and SAP.

While Microsoft is not as dependent on monetising personal data as Google and Facebook, for example, Bali would seem to represent a bold move on Redmond's part, albeit an experimental one at this stage.

The concept is based around a 2014 paper from Microsoft researchers that speaks of ‘inverse privacy' - the idea that users might not have access to the same data about themselves as third parties.

The 'personal information economy' is one of those ideas that's been around for a while but has not yet taken off to any extent. The idea is that individuals should be able to control what data they share and with whom.

Rather than their personal data being harvested, sold on and used in ways they cannot understand or control, they should instead be able to vet access to that data and license it to interested parties on the basis of 'what's in it for me?'.

Microsoft has not yet come out with any official announcements about the project. It remains to be seen where the experiments will take the tech giant. It's also impossible to say yet exactly what data generating websites will be able to interface with Bali, how it will work and indeed if Microsoft eventually plans to charge for this service.