Universities of Lucerne and Fribourg investigating incentives of data sharing
Lucerne/Fribourg - The Universities of Lucerne and Fribourg have received a grant of 323,000 Swiss francs from Innosuisse to finance a joint research project on the subject of digital cooperatives. The study aims to show whether users are willing to provide more personal data in exchange for a service in return.
As part of a joint research project financed by Innosuisse, the Swiss innovation agency, the University of Lucerne und University of Fribourg intend to investigate whether users of digital services are prepared to disclose more of their personal data in exchange for a service in return. As part of the project “The Digital Cooperative - Handling User Data for the Future”, traffic data is to be made available and rewarded, for example, in the form of virtual shares in the business model, voting rights, free use of the service or financial returns, further details of which can be found in a press release. A service is being developed specifically for this purpose, which will display traffic flows in the city of Lucerne in real time.
The project, which is being led by Bernhard Lingens from the Institute for Marketing and Analytics (IMA) at the University of Lucerne, is being carried out in conjunction with the IT and telecommunications firm Swisscom, the Swiss software and consulting company BBV and the City of Lucerne. It is set to run until 2024.
“Should the experience with this concept prove to be positive, an expansion of the service to the whole of Switzerland is planned”, the press release states. Up to now, users have had little incentive to provide companies with personal information beyond that which is automatically collected. However, extra data of this kind is of real interest to smaller companies in particular, which are very common in Switzerland due to the small size of the market.
