MiData programme on identity assurance links with Milton Keynes, Smart City

The MiData Studio project, aimed at empowering citizens with their own data while creating trust, will make recommendations for including privacy principles into the design of the project.

The three-month feasibility study will involve Milton Keynes Council, the Cabinet Office, the Open University, the Connected Digital Economy Catapult (government-funded innovation centre) and Ctrl-Shift, a consultancy.

The partners said in a statement: “The project will look for new ways for citizens to gain control of their information, exploring how they can give controlled access to trusted service providers for the services they want or need.”

“It will also act as a pilot for the Cabinet Office's identity assurance scheme in a local authority context.”

Milton Keynes is currently working towards becoming a Smart City, which will mean drawing together information from a range of sources across the city, including energy, transport and water use data, satellite data, social and economic datasets, and data crowd sourced from social media or through specialised apps.

Read about Smart Cities and related data protection issues in Barcelona in PL&B International, August 2014.

The findings of the MiData pilot project, launched in August, will be shared widely.