Meet Jay Pavagadhi, an entrepreneur who strengthens personal data privacy
While personal data keeps many technologies running, individuals have little control over who uses their data and how. It is scattered across different organizations that makes it difficult to manage. Lack of control and recent data breaches have further increased privacy concerns. Considering these issues, Jay Pavagadhi, a Machine Learning engineer, founded OLAK to create a central platform for individuals to manage their data and protect their privacy.
After working for Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo, Jay founded OLAK
After working for large tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo for a decade, Jay founded OLAK in 2018. His personal experience was the driving factor behind this decision. This California-based company has built a central platform called Personal Data Store for individuals to manage their personal data instead of having to contact hundreds of different service providers such as banks, pharmacies or government.
Reason behind founding OLAK? Jay's personal experience with third parties
"When my health insurance changed, my old medical bills were rejected by the old insurance and I had to reimburse it from the new insurance. The whole process of updating my details with so many hospitals and pharmacies was time-consuming and exhausting," he narrated.
Why should one use OLAK's Personal Data Store?
OLAK's Personal Data Store enables individuals to upload, share, update and delete their personal data - with one-click technology. Users can import all their personal details and give access to third parties to sign up for services easily and securely. For opening a bank account, a person is required to fill a lengthy form asking one's details. This can be done with just one-click by using OLAK.
User can update details quickly
With OLAK's PDS, when users update their personal details, the changes are sent immediately to relevant enterprises. OLAK also protects the data by using an encryption key, which is available only to the users for unlocking the content of their personal data. No other third party, including OLAK, has access to this key. Furthermore, OLAK does not store the encryption key on its servers.
Jay explains what the granular system of OLAK is
Another great privacy benefit given to individuals is the granular system. Explaining further, Jay says, "Contrary to the majority of cloud providers that offer a simple binary system of consent/deny for use and sharing of personal data, OLAK adopts a more user-centric and granular approach. This means that the user can separately choose which personal details to give access to and for how long."
OLAK has registered 20% monthly increase in number of users
And OLAK is already a hit! With 20% monthly increase in the number of users, it has recently exceeded 2,000 users. Building on this steady growth rate, it aims to establish itself as the market leader in PDS. Jay's vision for OLAK is clear: "What Facebook is for Social Data and LinkedIn for Professional Data, that's what OLAK aims to be for Personal Data."
