Trust::Data: A New Framework for Identity and Data sharing

As the economy and society move from a world where interactions were physical and based on paper documents, toward a world that is primarily governed by digital data and digital transactions, our existing methods of managing identity and data security are proving inadequate.  Large-scale fraud, identity theft and data breaches are becoming common, and a large fraction of the population have only the most limited digital credentials. Even so, our digital infrastructure is recognized as a strategic asset which must be resilient to threat. If we can create an Internet of Trusted Data that provides safe, secure access for everyone, then huge societal benefits can be unlocked, including better health, greater financial inclusion, and a population that is more engaged with and better supported by its government. Some of the world's leading data scientists, led by MIT Professor Alex Pentland, describe a roadmap and platforms to implement this new paradigm.

Thomas Hardjono is the CTO of MIT Connection Science. He leads technical projects and initiatives around identity, security and data privacy, and engages industry partners and sponsors on these fronts. Over the years he has published three books and over sixty technical papers in journals and at conferences. He holds 19 patents in the areas of security and cryptography. Thomas has a BSc degree in Computer Science with Honors from the University of Sydney, and PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of New South Wales in Australia. David Shrier is Managing Director of MIT Connection Science. David specializes in building new revenue on established platforms, having developed $8.5 billion of growth opportunities with companies including GE/NBC Universal, Dun & Bradstreet, Wolters Kluwer, Disney, Ernst & Young, AOL Verizon, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts, as well as leading private equity and VC funds. He has also started and/or led a number of private equity and venture capital-backed companies as CEO, CFO or COO. His first book, together with Sandy Pentland, is Frontiers of Financial Technology. David Shrier was granted an Sc.B. from Brown University in Biology and Theatre. Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland holds a triple appointment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Media Lab (SA+P), School of Engineering and School of Management. He also directs MIT’s Connect Science initiative, the Human Dynamics Laboratory and the MIT Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program, and has been a member of the Advisory Boards for Google, Nissan, Telefonica, Tencent, and a variety of start-up firms. For several years he co-led the World Economic Forum Big Data and Personal Data initiatives. He has pioneered the fields of wearable computing and computational social science, generating several successful startups and technology spinoffs. Sandy was recently named by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development. In 2012 Forbes named Sandy one of the “seven most powerful data scientists in the world”, along with the founders of Google and the CTO of the United States, and in 2013 he won the McKinsey Award from Harvard Business Review. Sandy’s books include Honest Signals, Social Physics, and Frontiers of Financial Technology. He was named to the National Academy of Engineering in 2014. Sandy holds a BGS from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from MIT.