Helsinki wants to be the top city in the world in utilising digitalisation. In the process, Helsinki is creating timely and personal digital services together with the citizens that are based on the life situations of individuals. In this work, they will be getting help from Vastuu Group, a Finnish company that develops services based on personal data. It makes knowledge transfer between technology, processes and, people effortless, secure, and based on an individual’s consent.
“Helsinki aims to be the most functional city in the world. The key element in this has been our ambitious digitalisation program. In the future, we want to target the city services in a predictive way that calls for the utilisation of analytics and data. Trust is in the essence of data usage: the citizens need to be to trust that the city is using data on their behalf and with their consent so that it benefits both, the citizens and the city. This is what MyData is basically about,” said the Mayor of Helsinki, Jan Vapaavuori.
MyData services give citizens a way to control and better understand the information that is gathered from them. According to MyData principles, Helsinki aims to enable citizens to influence the way the city is using data gathered from them. In order to build human-centric services that originate from the citizens’ needs, it is essential to understand and analyze the societal structures, legislation, and the everyday reality of the citizens.
Helsinki holds various types of citizen data which is gathered from services the citizens use. Helsinki wants to be clear about the data that is gathered, what data is collected and what it is used for. In addition, an individual can affect if his or her data is shared between different services inside the city or between organisations, for example, for another city. The same principle allows the individual to deny the use of their data.
Mikko Rusama, the City of Helsinki’s Chief Digital Officer, said: “Implementing the MyData principles is a central goal in Helsinki’s digitalisation programme. We collaborate with Vastuu Group and the cities of Espoo, Turku and Oulu to ensure citizens’ transparency and better control on how their data is being used. Helsinki is an international forerunner in building human-centric internet.”
Vastuu Group’s MyData solutions enable the management and decentralization of personal data and other information gathered from individuals in a way that information moves between parties without unnecessary copies. Decentralization of information ensures that the information is not stored in a big mass in one place. This, for example, decreases the temptation for information breaches.
“It is awesome that the City of Helsinki has taken the lead in Finland and is developing human-centric and sustainable services in co-operation with the public and private parties,” said Vastuu Group’s Deputy CEO and Head of MyData operations, Mika Huhtamäki.
