Mastercard And IBM Launch Trust To Help Companies Meet Europe Data Rules

Mastercard, the payments company, and IBM, the technology powerhouse, announced Thursday (March 15) the creation of an independent trust to help companies meet the requirements of Europe’s upcoming privacy and data protection policies known as the European General Data Protection Regulation.

In a press release, the companies said the trust — which is called Trūata — has been designed specifically to help companies become compliant with GDPR and enable them to meet the standards and at the same time continue to innovate. IBM was named a foundational partner for technology and services that will include cloud, analytics and cognitive computing capabilities. Mastercard said a key component of the collaboration will be applying anonymization technologies from IBM’s global research teams. Felix Marx, who most recently was executive vice president of services for Mastercard in Asia Pacific, will head up the trust as Chief Executive.  “Trūata is built on the long-standing demand for data, security and privacy. This demand will be catalyzed by the arrival of the GDPR and other developments like 5G and the Internet of Things. The Trūata data trust, paired with data anonymization and analytics, is a natural next step in the evolution of the data economy,” Marx said in the press release.

Mastercard noted that because of how the trust was structured from a governance perspective, Trūata will operate independently of its beneficiaries and customers, giving it the ability to maintain direct control over data hosting and analytics on behalf of its clients. Mastercard is not only a founder of the initiative but it said it will be one of the first customers to use it for data anonymization and analytics.

“At Mastercard, data privacy and security are part of our stock in trade. Data and analytics are central to our business. For security. For business intelligence. For enabling personalized experiences and faster, more relevant service to our customers and their customers,” said Kevin Stanton, chief services officer at Mastercard, in the same press release. “We are proud that Trūata builds on a rock solid foundation of security, privacy, technology, trust and expertise. With true independence and advanced technologies, Trūata will be key to answering businesses’ biggest data questions.”

Technologists and data protection experts who have joined the board of the initiative include 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. Trūata will be based out of Ireland.

“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 of IBM Research. “We are proud to partner with Trūata 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.”