MEECO WANTS YOU TO HAVE YOUR DATA - AND SELL IT TOO

WANT data protection? Sydney startup Meeco can help you out. 

The 'life management platform' gives individuals the ability to store, exchange and negotiate the use of personal data on their own terms.

Established in 2013, Meeco has gone from strength to strength and just came off a $3.2 million seed funding round for rapid global expansion.

It's also recently launched Meeco Labs in Europe and Australia, a program designed for global enterprises and governments to trial new trust based customer outcomes in a consumer-centric environment.

Meeco was created in response to changing attitudes towards privacy, with founder and CEO Katryna Dow recognising that individuals were crying out for a secure platform.

"There is an enormous shift in attitude towards data privacy amongst citizens and brands," says Dow.

"This is being driven by two trends - growing consumer awareness and concern about how personal data is being used and abused, coupled with significant changes to privacy policy and law in Europe and other territories.

"Prior to Meeco, the power to capture, analyse and profit from personal data has resided with businesses, government and social networks.

"Meeco flips that model entirely around so that the individual is an equal participant in the value created, controlling the use of his or her personal data derived from every day occurrences and transactions."

The platform includes a range of apps that use encrypted processes to allow individual consumers to store their data and exchange it to others on a transparent and permission basis.

Basically, it puts data back in the owner's hands.

Meeco believes it's a sure thing that personal information will become more valuable as time goes on, being used in transactions to purchase items and get discounts. Meeco Labs recently conducted a study and found 95 per cent fo participants want to use their data as an asset to exchange with organisations, while similar studies have recently been commissioned around the world. 

However, for now, Dow is focusing on Meeco's expansion into Europe made possible through the seed investment.

She says the newly passed privacy legislation that will take effect in 2017 over there makes this a timely move.

Meeco will launch a Series A capital raising round in late April to further bolster global expansion, with eyes on the US.