Mastercard and IBM have partnered to found a new trust that will allow organisations to conduct analytics and data protection while complying with regulations such as the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
“Truata will enable companies to meet the standards of data protection envisioned by the GDPR, while continuing to innovate and deliver the services and experiences their customers demand,” said a launch statement.
The new trust leverages an IBM technology platform for strategic technology and services, such as cloud, analytics and cognitive computing capabilities. The trust said “a cornerstone of the collaboration will be to apply market leading anonymisation technologies” from IBM’s global research teams.
Conceived by Mastercard, Truata will provide “a new standard in data hosting and anonymisation”.
CEO
The trust will be led by Felix Marx, as CEO. The Austrian national, has more than two decades of experience in telecommunications, identity management and payments, and most recently was executive vice president of services in Asia-Pacific for Mastercard.
“Truata is built on the long-standing demand for data, security and privacy,” said Marx. “This demand will be catalysed by the arrival of the GDPR and other developments like 5G and the Internet of Things. The Truata data trust, paired with data anonymisation and analytics, is a natural next step in the evolution of the data economy.”
Truata’s innovative trust structure, said the founders, offers a new and unique solution that proactively safeguards privacy and engenders trust. Because of its governance structure, Truata will operate independently of its beneficiaries and customers, thereby allowing it to maintain direct control over data hosting and analytics on behalf of its client companies.
Powerful resource
“Data is a powerful resource and companies have a clear responsibility to protect it. That is why we believe that GDPR represents a catalyst for digital transformation that will lead to enhanced data privacy, more efficient and integrated data processing, and the ability to gain deeper insights for enterprises as they meet these requirements,” said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president, Hybrid Cloud and director, IBM Research. “We are proud to partner with Truata to offer our industry-leading technologies to help businesses extract greater value from their data, while maintaining its integrity and protecting the rights of individuals.”
Truata’s board boasts a host of prominent technologists and data protection experts, including Professor Barry Smyth, Digital Chair of Computer Science at University College Dublin; Aoife Sexton, principal at Tech Law Services and co-founder and director at Frontier Privacy, a data protection services consultancy firm; and Kevin Butler, managing director of TMF Group Ireland.
“Under the GDPR, companies will have more responsibilities in terms of how they manage personal data of consumers,” said Aoife Sexton. “In my day job and now with Truata, we see the disruption businesses can face if they don’t put these safeguards at the centre of their data strategies.”
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