Short summary of the Profila app (as testing ground for this fund 6 POCs) - Profila is a platform (mobile IOS/Android application for individuals and a web-based dashboard for companies, organizations, governments and other legal entities, we call "Brands") that enables individuals to communicate with various organizations in their lives, privately, one-to-one, and without supervision or surveillance.
People can manage their digital life in one location via an app that shows which organisations have access to (certain parts of) their personal data. People can sort all their personal information, product preferences and communication preferences and communicate with all the organizations they want to interact with in the same easy way (instead of on each individual organization's platform each time). The entire tool is design for people to (1) gain control over their personal data; (2) choose to ethically share (or not) they personal data with organisations, and (3) get compensated if they do (today only in fiat).
Big picture explanation of the current proposal . We are developing an umbrella concept with the code name "Metronome" which is based on the idea of empowering individuals with granular control within different data scenarios and relationship archetypes. These features will involve providing clear consent about the channel preference, cadence, and type of communication allowed between organizations (whether being brands, companies, or other kinds of organizations), In short, it enables individuals to have full control over the flow through the "pipes". These explicit preferences will be controlled by individuals across all of their scenarios and relationships or more granular per brand or industry. These preferences will be captured by utilizing translation metadata to ensure that the scope and details of these preferences are captured and enforced. Our own Cardano-native token called "Zero Knowledge Token" or ZEKE will be integrated into this feature so that people can unlock more granular and detailed controls with more ZEKE, gamifying the experience of controlling how brands can contact you.
Detailed explanation of Metronome:
1. Transactional Scenarios
There are many instances where individuals want to convey a signal to the market for their interest in specific products and/or services and want to do so in a zero-knowledge or minimal-knowledge environment. And the individual may also want to specific through what channels they wish to receive information/offers and how many offers they wish to receive within a specific time frame. Lastly, they can decide to do so in a true zero-knowledge environment or one where some a minimal amount of information is provided in order to help companies provide more targeted and relevant offers.
Let's take two examples (one for each).
An individual decides to take up a new hobby (let's say, archery). That new hobby will involve procuring the proper equipment and clothing, training and instructions, and general resources to help the individual begin their journey to integrating this new hobby into their lives. They may wish to discover companies that cater to that hobby but do not want to be overwhelmed with offers or ads based on their observed behavior on search engines and social media. Instead, they would convey an Interest Signal which would include the required metadata that conveys
- what channel they want to receive information in
- What kinds of content/services they wish to receive (products and/or service)
- How many offers/ads they wish to receive per type within a defined period (per week, per month).
In this scenario, it may be irrelevant the gender or geographic location of the individual, so this scenario could run as a Zero-Knowledge one, with no personally identifiable information passing through, only the Interest Signal and the stated preferences.
A second scenario would fall under the Minimal Knowledge area where the recipient has information that is pertinent to responding but nothing that is directly identifiable to an individual. An individual decides they want to purchase a new automobile. Beyond that Buying Signal, it would be useful for companies to know more about the person in order to make the best offer. These might include general location (for instance, Canada), and some lifestyle details which will need to be accommodated by any purchase (for instance, 2 kids, 3 large dogs, hobbies including skiing/snowboarding). The individual can then dictate the preferences for offers that would be captured with defined metadata
- what channel they want to receive offers in
- When they want the offers and when do they expect to make the purchase.
- How many offers/ads they wish to receive and for how long of a time period.
These would be considered qualified leads by automobile companies since there is clear interest and intent, while also allowing the individuals to product scarcity (in defining the number of offers) and controlling the cadence of offers before they make a decision.
In general, these use cases are defined as Transactional; short term needs with defined timelines and outcomes. Let's turn our attention to more longer-term, relationship-centric scenarios
2. Relationship Archetypes
In the Profila mode relationships are either defined as one-way or bi-directional. One way relationships (where an individual expresses interest in a brand's product or services but there is no data subscription offered or accepted) are called Connections.
Connections
An individual can connect with a brand that they know they like or occasional make purchases from. It's not vital that the brand have a defined known data relationship with the individual (so no names or other intimate details required). In this kind of relationship, the individual may just want to know the new products offered by the company once or twice a year, or want to receive offers or discounts for their next purchase. It is a casual relationship but one that is still profitable to the company since it produces revenue with minimal marketing effort.
In this scenario, an individual can connect with a brand and then define the terms of the interaction.
- what channels they want to receive offers/content
- The types of content they wish to receive (product updates, company social campaigns, offers and discounts)
- How often they will allow these contacts (once or twice a year, for example).
These preferences will be stored with metadata contracts along with the defined preferences about which personal data is provided (perhaps the person's gender, age, and city/country). Combined, the individual as asserted control over what the company knows about them as individuals and how often they should expect to be contacted and through which channel. And for the brand, they now have an existing customer who can be marketed too with less effort, higher engagement (since it's according to their preferences) and better conversation and return on their minimal marketing investment.
Subscribers
The other relationship scenario present in the Profila model is one of Subscription. In this scenario, a brand sends a subscription offer to an individual with the request for specific types of personal information; demographic and psychographic based on self-discovery quizzes organized into categories). This offer is for defined renumeration and for a defined duration of time. The individual can accept or reject the offer after reviewing the conditions and requests. This agreement will be captured in a transaction metadata contract as per the previous Profila proposal for Catalyst.
The second aspect of this relationship is a separate contract capturing the metadata as defined by the individual for the expected behavior within the relationship. These stated preferences would take a similar form as what we've seen in earlier scenarios above
- what channel would they like their communication in
- What kind of communication types are allowed
- How often they will allow communication per type
- Any special timely preferences, such as wanting to restrict content for a certain amount of time (for holiday or because a product line is not relevant to the individual for the coming time period).
As an example, imagine an individual has accepted a subscription offer from a shoe company that specializes in outdoor footwear. The individual is a brand loyalist and has a range of this brand's offerings (from sandals to shoes to hiking boots). The individual expects to be a long term customer of this brand but right now their current collection of shoes are relatively new and they are not in the market for a purchase for the coming 9-12 months. While this individual currently has their preferences stated as accepting monthly offers and updates through their preferred channel, they want to change these preferences so that they receive no offers for the next 12 months but would appreciate any updates on socially conscious projects the company is involved with. These new preferences would be captured, overwriting the previous preferences, and the brand would know that, to keep this customer happy, they can scale back their marketing efforts until this brand loyalist is ready to purchase a new product in a year's time.
3. Governance / Enforcement
All of these examples open up a new range of empowerment for individuals to create and manage their communication preferences to a degree not possible with any current solution or platform. But without a defined governance and enforcement this power would be moot. Thankfully, we have very simple but powerful ways to completely enforce the preferences stored as metadata in contracts.
If the chosen channel for communications is the Profila platform (where individuals would receive communication in the form of posts or messages) we will be able to use the preference metadata to enforce those preferences. For instance, if I have informed a brand that I wish to only receive one offer a month, the amount of communication possibilities available to a brand will be "0"they sent me something last week. It will only become "1" again in three weeks time. Since communication through the platform is based on available engagements, that brand will have no mechanism to send additional communications beyond my stated preference. Within our platform these preferences are completely enforceable.
If the chosen channel for communication is email, we also have a solution, similar to one's employed by Apple and others. Each Profila user will have an @profila.com address which can be registered by the user as their default email (what is exposed to brands) but has a corresponding personal address (such as an @gmail.com or @outlook.com address) that communication is routed through. Because Profila can play the role of protector and middle-man, we can again enforce the preferences stated by the user. Profila can play the gatekeeper role that each individual decides they want us to play. Or not. It is always up to each individual.
The challenge is as follows: "what applications will provide the most value for end users in 2022"?
We are confident that our proposal addresses this challenge because we are expecting several companies onto our platform in the next months, who will benefit from the functionality we develop under this proposal
- We are onboarding 100.000+ users onto the App in the next months, as part of a pilot with a large multinational.
- All of these people will be able to use these privacy functionalities to better understand how to take control of their data with brands and how to control how brands use this data to send them content.
- A feature like metronome doesn't exist today on the internet, and will revolutionize the way we think about data ownership. The Cardano blockchain integration will make sure that each decision you take (on how you can be contacted) will be immutable, so you can make brands accountable if they do not abide by your instructions.
Challenges
- Scalability and speed of Cardano blockchain for high volume transaction if millions of people would use the ledger to share their preferences and communication instructions (via Metronome) with multiple brands.
- Cost of high volume transaction ledger/record of all blockchain entries (we'll have to work with batching metronome settings together instead of 1 person-1entry).
Risks
- Cardano blockchain speed and cost might be prohibitive to project success/adoption
- Personal information of a user on the blockchain (even if hashed) forms a risk. Workaround to be researched under this proposal