Thought Leadership

This is a real photo, taken recently by one of our team, of their vehicle’s infotainment screen. It’s asking them to review updated terms. On a screen that size. In a car. And like most drivers, they’ll click through — because what’s the alternative?

Are we about to build twenty smart data schemes… when what we really need is one smart data network?

Twenty ways to fragment the same underlying problem.

What’s needed is not twenty schemes.

It’s a single, interoperable smart data network that can support all of them—and many more.

Retail media has become one of the defining growth engines of modern marketing. What began as an extension of shopper marketing—sponsored listings, on-site placements, and closed-loop attribution—has evolved into a sophisticated ecosystem powered by first-party data (1PD), AI, and increasingly advanced measurement frameworks.

Customer Agency in Action isn’t a better chatbot. It’s not a smarter recommendation engine. It’s something more fundamental: Customers with their own agents, operating on their own data, fulfilling their own intentions. Two modes. One principle: You are in control. Not the retailer. Not the platform. Not the algorithm.

For years, we’ve talked about the idea of being on the “right deal.”. The best energy tariff. The right insurance. The optimal subscription mix. And we’ve built tools to help—search, comparison sites, switching services. But all of them share the same flaw: They are one-off decisions in a constantly changing world.

For more than a decade, the digital economy has organised itself around a familiar hierarchy of personal data. We talk about: Third-party data (3PD), Second-party data (2PD), First-party data (1PD) and Zero-party data (0PD).

But today, it is no longer sufficient. At DataPal, we believe we are not building “better first-party data”. We are helping define the next logical stage in the evolution of personal data itself. A shift to what we call MyPD+.

It’s a familiar phrase—heard on train platforms as a warning to passengers. A small gap, perhaps. But one that, if ignored, can cause real problems. In the digital world, there is another gap. Far larger. Far more consequential.

For decades, we have lived in a state of digital serfdom. We generate an ocean of data every second—our heart rates, our spending habits, our career milestones—yet we rarely "own" any of it in a meaningful sense. Instead, this information sits trapped in corporate silos, treated either as a liability to be managed or a product to be sold.

Archimedes famously said: “Give me a place to stand, and a lever, and I will move the world.”

It’s a bold claim. But like most powerful ideas, it’s not about physics—it’s about leverage. And right now, in the digital world, individuals have almost none.

Hiring has become a data-heavy, AI-driven process that too often strips out trust, transparency and humanity. This article explores how a people-first, candidate-centric approach — powered by personal data ownership and MyTerms — could rebalance the hiring process, protect privacy, improve matching, and deliver better outcomes for both candidates and employers.

Whoever controls the server controls the context. And whoever controls the context controls the outcome. For nearly forty years, the dominant architecture of the digital world has been client–server. It powered the web. It enabled ecommerce. It scaled cloud computing. And it quietly shaped the power structure of the internet. Now it’s time for Agent-Agent.

A new technical standard, known as vCon (Virtual Conversation), is being developed within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). vCon defines a structured, privacy-aware format for capturing, storing, exchanging, and analysing conversational data.

Our data shapes thousands of buying decisions every year — yet today, it mostly works against you. With AI, fiduciary agents, and MyTerms, individuals can finally put their data to work on their own terms. This article explores why that shift will redefine marketing, trust, and digital power.

Who really works for you online? Most digital services profit from your data, not your interests. At DataPal, we believe personal data now matters too much for that. Here we explore why fiduciary is becoming the most important word in data, privacy and AI—and what it changes when technology is designed to work for individuals, not platforms.

…In fact any relationship that has a digital component benefits from both parties having their own relationship management capabilities. As peers. Not the current model in which one party has the tooling and the power, and the other can only do as they are allowed. That’s clearly where we are headed with DataPal.

Building apps is easy. Right? We can build a quick app for that! However managing user data safely is not. Poor data handling creates security, privacy and governance risks that slow teams down and erode trust. New standards and personal data platforms now allow developers to plug in secure, consent-driven user data services — accelerating development, improving UX, and putting individuals firmly in control of their data.

For 25 years we’ve accepted a one-way model: visit a site, sign up, give away data, live inside their silo. DataPal argues that this is no longer the only way—or the best way. A new paradigm is emerging where individuals hold their own data, control who accesses it, and benefit from richer, safer and more seamless digital experiences. Using simple examples like Travel Log, we show how interoperable, user-controlled data unlocks better apps, lower compliance burdens and entirely new possibilities.

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management emerged as a software solution and business definition when new technical capabilities emerged. The new possibility that emerged (in 1995 or so) was that three main business functions (marketing, selling and customer service) could be underpinned by a single database; the mythical ‘single view of the customer’.

Buying and Selling Homes – a DataPal Use Case! We wanted to explore how a new approach to the provision and flow of information, using the DataPal principles and platform, can addresses the challenges which characterise a very frustrating and opaque process for many stakeholders.

Building Trust Through Action: How AI Shopping Agents Bring DataPal's Vision to Life. From theory to transaction: our journey building a customer-side AI agent that puts individuals in control of their shopping experience.

So I’m going into a week of intense work on MyTerms/ IEEE7012 - at VRM Day, Internet Identity Workshop and the Agentic Protocol Workshop. All at The Computer History Museum in Mountain View; as ever an appropriate place for this kind of work. And then multiple working sessions, dinners and drinks around those.

Imagine being able to use your own energy, insurance, banking, broadband, pension or rewards data to compare deals, switch provider, optimise spending, support research, join group buying, resolve customer service issues, or safely share access with family members, attorneys or executors.

People should have their own digital record of the education and their employment that they control and which works on their behalf - for life.

My Personal Agents and how they will radically improve CRM and change Customer Experience (CX).

What if there was a viable means for individuals to receive fair value and utility from their data, and for businesses to directly access the personal data they need in a transparent, compliant way?