云端个人数据管理中枢有望终结iPhone

    提供数据聚合服务的第三方窃取互联网用户个人信息，通过各种程序监视用户以及将用户网页浏览数据出售给无良商家——网民们对这类不齿行径已经耳熟能详。但对于如何控制自己的个人信息以防泄露这个问题，网民们就知之甚少了，更不用提支配个人信息的访问或使用授权了。

    不过现在情况不一样了。几家高科技初创企业正在为立足于个人数据控制产品这一新兴市场领域展开角逐。根据世界经济论坛（The World Economic Forum）的说法，个人数据是二十一世纪的一种资产类别；互联网用户应该从根本上把自己的个人数据当作“银行存款”来看待。信息技术行业市场研究公司弗雷斯特研究公司（Forrester Research）预测，个人数据管理这一新兴市场规模达几十亿美元，在接下来的18到24个月里更可获得大幅增长。仅就美国市场而言，每年光是花费在第三方消费者数据收集上的资金就超过20亿美元。Azigo、Mydex,、The DataBanker 和 Personal.com等公司争相通过个人信息数据业务创收。

    这些个人数据收集公司到底是怎么运作的呢？大家可以想象一个基于云技术的“中心”，它既充当虚拟保险箱，同时又是个人数字助手。用户能通过这个中心管理自己的在线生活，储存所有的数字信息，包括：财务信息、医疗记录、电影、音乐等等。智能化软件控制个人信息读取，确保用户只向合法可信的网站提供必要的在线身份信息。《拉：语义网改变你的商业》（Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business）一书的作者戴夫•西格尔认为，这些在线保险箱将最终取代个人电脑、平板电脑、iPhone、微软（Microsoft）的Windows操作系统、苹果（Apple）的Macintosh操作系统以及谷歌（Google）的安卓（Android）操作系统。

    听起来像是高科技初创企业的虚张声势？也许吧。但咨询公司波士顿咨询公司（Boston Consulting Group）的数据显示，到2016年，全球互联网用户人数将达到30亿，几乎相当于全球总人口的一半。将这些用户和他们的数字文档乘以数十亿计的信息记录，大家可以体会这个概念有多大。不难看出风险资本现在对这一领域高度关注的原因。投资人斯蒂夫•凯斯就是其中一个。据美国证券交易委员会（Securities and Exchange Commission）监管备案文件显示，凯斯的风险投资公司Revolution所投资的Personal.com于2011年1月融资730万美元，今年3月又追加融资350万美元。Personal.com的竞争对手Singly.com则融资700万美元。

    问及筹集初始种子资金是否困难时，Mydex联席创始人威廉•希思没有正面回答，只说：“我们得到了需要的资金。”Mydex是总部设在英国的一家个人数据控制服务公司。而Azigo联席创始人兼首席技术官保罗•特里维希克说：“如果你有足够的用户，不难发现可以利用个人数据存储的各种商业模式。”总部设在马萨诸塞州沃尔瑟姆的Azigo免费提供一种网站服务，能将用户喜欢的品牌、广告偏好、商品目录和每日优惠订阅数据等个人信息归纳到个人数据保险箱。Mydex的希思说：“我们正处在这个行业进程的开端，但是已经能清楚地看到即将掀起一场完美风暴的各种要素。”

    现在看来，关键问题是这种技术什么时候能够成为主流。Connect.me公司的创始人德拉蒙德•里德说，一款“杀手级应用程序”将起到催化剂的作用。当出现需要用到个人数据保险箱和个人数据网络服务时，就标志着这种数据保险箱已成为主流。里德的公司一直在开发其尊重信任网服务（The Respect Trust Network），从而建立起这一框架。它的运行模式是这样的：用户无需登录一系列网站，也不需要使用一堆密码打开浏览器标签，相反，只要登录一次就可以连接到 “个人频道”——数据保险箱。通过数据保险箱，用户可以直接进入个人购物、银行或者是博客菜单，而且始终不会离开该服务站点。尊重信任网服务计划在2013年末推出。

    曾为美国互联网公司网景公司（Netscape）和安全软件公司迈克菲公司（McAfee）元老的卡麦伦•刘易斯则另辟蹊径。2011年，他将Statz.com做成一个依托于网站的客户端，类似于金融服务公司嘉信公司（Schwab）和E-trade公司。在这个客户端上，消费者创建理财账户以管理自己的数据组合，直接卖给商户。刘易斯把这种模式描述成个人数据“同业公会”的行业先驱。它与惠普实验室（HP Lab）的策略一致，在一份题为《根据个人的隐私态度支付个人数据费用》（Paying Individuals According to their Privacy Attitudes）的报告里有详细的论述。后来，由于Statz.com无法获得进一步融资，刘易斯于是创立了基于相似经营理念的The DataBanker公司。

    虽然依靠广告创收的互联网产值已超过美国GDP的2%，但是消费者应该有权选择控制自己的个人信息并从中获利的观念还是太过激进。对数据保险箱这一理念持批评态度的人士迅速表达了不同意见。美国无线互联网和移动计算咨询公司（Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing）总裁艾伦•赖特在高管社交网络平台CMO Site上撰写的一篇博文中明确表示：“坦白说，我觉得这类公司不大可能成功。消费者已经在Facebook之类的社交网站上无偿提供了自己的数据，同时，不管是否明确表示了同意，已经在事实上默许了企业的数据采集。”

    Internet users have heard plenty about third-party aggregators filching their data, spying on them via all manner of cookies and selling Web surfing data to unscrupulous marketers. Much less has been said about what users can do to control their personal information, let alone have a say in who can snoop around, poke into or use it.

    Until now. A handful of tech startups are competing for a foothold in the emerging market for personal data control products. According to The World Economic Forum, personal data is the asset class of the twenty-first century; users should essentially view their data like "money in a bank." Forrester Research (FORR) projects that the nascent business of personal data management is worth billions and could grow substantially over the next 18 to 24 months. In the U.S. alone, over $2 billion is spent annually just collecting consumer data from third-parties. Companies such as Azigo, Mydex, The DataBanker and Personal.com are racing to cash in.

    How would these personal data lockers work exactly? Picture a cloud-based "hub" that's part virtual safe and part personal digital assistant. This hub allows users to manage their online lives and store all their digital stuff: financial information, medical records, movies, music, and so on. Clever software controls access, making sure appropriate elements of a user's online identity are available to the right, trusted Web sites. Dave Siegel, author of Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business, argues these cyber vaults will eventually replace PCs, tablets, iPhones, and Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows and Apple's (AAPL) Macintosh operating systems. Yes, Google (GOOG) Android, too.

    Sound like startup swagger? Perhaps. But by 2016, there will be 3 billion Internet users globally -- almost half the world's population -- according to the Boston Consulting Group. Multiply these users and their digital dossiers over billions of records to grasp the magnitude of the idea. It's not hard to see why venture capital is paying attention. Steve Case is, for one. His company Revolution invested in Personal.com, which raised $7.3 million in January 2011 and added another $3.5 million to its coffers this March, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Sing.ly, a competitor, put together $7 million.

    Asked if it was difficult to raise the initial seed capital, cofounder William Heath of U.K.-based Mydex, deflects a bit: "We've got what we need," he says. "It isn't too hard to see that if you have enough users, there are various business models that could leverage [personal data stores]," says Paul Trevithick, cofounder and chief technology officer of Waltham, Mass.-based Azigo, a free web service that links all one's favored brands, ad preferences, catalogs and daily deal subscriptions into a personal vault. "We're right at the beginning of this process," says Mydex's Heath, "but can clearly see all the ingredients for a perfect storm."

    The crucial question appears to now be when such technologies are likely to break into the mainstream. Drummond Reed, founder of Connect.me, says a "killer app" will be the catalyst. The first service that requires a personal data locker and a personal data network to work will signal that lockers have become prime-time players. His firm is working on The Respect Trust Network to put this framework in place. It works like this: Instead of signing on to a bunch of sites and juggling dozens of passwords and open browser tabs, you'll sign-on once and connect to your "personal channel" -- the locker. From there, you can access your menu of shopping, banking or blogs, without ever leaving the network. It's scheduled to launch in late 2013.

    Netscape and McAfee veteran Cameron Lewis takes a different approach. In 2011 he positioned Statz.com as a web-based client where consumers create a broker account -- similar to Schwab (SCHW) or E-Trade (ETFC) -- and manage a portfolio of their data to sell directly to marketers. Lewis describes this model as a first-of-its kind "board of trade," closely aligned with HP Labs' (HPQ) strategy, detailed in a report titled "Paying Individuals According to their Privacy Attitudes." When Statz.com couldn't find more funding, Lewis started The DataBanker, an outfit based on a similar idea.

    Although the advertising-supported Internet comprises over 2% of U.S. gross domestic product, the very idea that consumers should have the option to profit from or control their personal data is fairly radical. And critics of data lockers have been swift to dismiss the idea. Alan Reiter, president of Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing, a consulting firm, was explicit: "Frankly, I can't see many or any of these companies succeeding," he wrote in a CMO Site blog post, noting that consumers already freely give away their data on Facebook (FB), social networking sites, and agree, with or without consent, to data capture.