Reclaiming our data with holistic identity in an AI-driven future

In today's age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the data management landscape has been forever changed. Unsurprisingly, we're already seeing tech giants such as Meta, Microsoft, and NVIDIA being entwined in an AI-arms race in a bid to trump one another in having the most sophisticated AI model.

On the other side of the coin, cyber criminals have begun adopting and integrating AI within their arsenal, enhancing the lethality, sophistication, and efficiency of their attack patterns and tactics. These have been keeping organisations on their toes and lookout for imminent threats and attacks. 

AI-generated deepfakes have also begun taking prominence online, with Asia-Pacific seeing a 1,530% surge from 2022 to 2023. Deepfakes remain a key issue during political election seasons around the world, with threat actors seeking to spread mis/disinformation to influence discourse. 

The AI-Driven Landscape of Today

The evolutionary possibilities of AI have prompted regulatory bodies to keep this technology in check by tightening regulations, as seen in the passing of the first major AI law by the European Union. Cybersecurity firms have also started to integrate AI components within their solutions to continue battling against cyber criminals. 

However, these industry trends and solutions (although showing positive results) may not be enough to keep up with the speedy development of AI. Figures from MIT CSAIL and MIT FutureTech show that even the most thorough AI frameworks overlook approximately 30% of the risks, suggesting that the speed of AI development is outpacing risk assessment. 

AI is exciting, but to address its risks, we need to understand that AI models are trained on the availability of publicly available data, and this would include the digital footprints left behind by individuals – social media posts we create, for instance. With high-quality language data projected to be exhausted by 2025, we are slowly starting to see companies inch their way toward leveraging private data – information not made known to public such as our web browsing activity, purchase history analyses, or even our personal social media conversations. This adds more fuel to the fire in the chatter around privacy issues.

This points towards a bigger issue: we live in a world where we don't own our data. Many of us believe that we own our data simply because we can access it – akin to money in the bank. However, our data is often stored on centralised, siloed platforms and often subject to the will of platform owners.

If the platform shuts down, that data is lost without any consequences apart from the impact the loss of access to that data brings. How, then, can we genuinely claim ownership of our data when it is so dependent on the platform owner's control?

There needs to be a transformation in the way we think about, approach, and manage private data, calling for the urgent need for effective identity management solutions to bridge these gaps. Such innovations should provide individuals with the means of engaging with organisations and businesses through privacy-first and consent-driven data exchanges. 

The Way Forward with Holistic Identity

This can be achieved through a Holistic Identity approach, a concept that encompasses the reconstitution of fragmented data trapped in centralised platforms into the hands of individuals, empowering them with full management of their own data through their own personal data store. This allows them to securely manage, store, share, and monetise their information, returning data ownership. By becoming the custodians of their own data, they can control what they choose to share and with whom, ensuring they share a unified and accurate representation of themselves with designated parties. 

Through leveraging zero-party data – information shared directly by customers, where they have full transparency and knowledge of how their data will be used – organisations and businesses can also adhere to strict consent-first principles, enabling trust, privacy, and security at every point of the digital transaction. 

Holistic Identity will further enable businesses to provide better customer experiences through the enablement of streamlined 'single click' onboarding tools, ensuring a frictionless experience. They will be able to access richer, more precise data from their customers, while fostering healthier transparent relationships, and building greater loyalty founded on greater customer satisfaction.

In fact, Affinidi is setting a new benchmark in data ethics with its privacy-first, consent-driven framework through the Affinidi Trust Network (ATN) and Affinidi Iota Framework. By leveraging decentralised technologies, Affinidi enables businesses to absolve themselves from data liability without compromising the benefits of returning data ownership to customers. 

This allows businesses to scale with greater flexibility, adapt to market changes, and ensure compliance with privacy regulations while mitigating risks associated with siloed data storage. Additionally, it enhances customer satisfaction by reducing costs associated with customer acquisition and retention, through efficient and accurate access to enriched customer information. This approach not only supports responsible data practices across industries but also drives customer satisfaction and loyalty by balancing personalisation with privacy.

Against the rise of cybercrimes powered by AI technologies, Holistic Identity's solutions are also built on decentralised, advanced cryptographical techniques that add data security complexities which are not found in current centralised security systems. These additional defence layers make it more challenging for hackers to penetrate, strengthening cybersecurity posture against imminent cyberthreats. 

The Future of Data Management

The prominence and adoption of AI is palpable in the current day and age, and the technology is only going to take deeper root and evolve in the next few decades. Conversations around the ethical use of AI and how AI models are trained will play a pivotal role in driving stronger consumer awareness around data privacy. 

Affinidi is paving the way forward in revolutionising the data management landscape, envisioning a world where individuals manage their own data and how businesses leverage those data. There needs to be greater awareness around data reclamation through innovative concepts such as Holistic Identity to fully understand the potential impact it can have. To fully experience a world where data reclamation becomes the industry norm, it would require whole-of-society efforts to progressively and collectively be a part of this journey, as we evolve in the transformative landscape shaped by AI-driven technologies.