Article 20 of the General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD), which came into force on 25 May this year, is not the best known. However, alongside the classic rights of access, rectification and forgetting, this article gives European citizens the right to portability. In other words, they can retrieve their personal data from a supplier (profile, preferences, purchase history, etc.) and then, if they so wish, transfer it to another platform. Subscribers to an audio streaming service will understand the benefits of portability if they wish to migrate their playlists from Spotify to Deezer, or vice versa.
But portability does more than just facilitate the transition to competition. It also offers the possibility of bringing together data from different service providers in one place. All this data could then "dialogue and give BtoC players a truly 360° view of their consumers. Whether in the world of health, fashion or the automotive industry, many companies would undoubtedly be very interested in this prospect.
Making life easier for travellers
Similarly, business travel lends itself ideally to the emergence of new services according to Olivier Dion, CEO of Onecub, a start-up supported by SNCF Développement and the originator of a platform dedicated to data portability: " In a journey, there is only one action to perform: moving from one place to another. But this action involves a multitude of players. " In this context, and this is what Onecub proposes to do through its platform, data portability would enable travel agencies, aggregators, carriers, hotels, etc. to be interconnected.
The first advantage of this development is that it simplifies life for business travellers. All they have to do is fill in the details of their trip once - destination, arrival and departure times, etc. - and their preferences - 1st or 2nd class, type of vehicle hired, hotel category.... This information will then be known - if he agrees - by all the players in the chain. What's more, the fields on the online booking forms will already be pre-filled, and the processing of expenses notes will be all the smoother on your return from the trip.
Data sharing presents several other advantages. The historical recording of train or plane delays and the exchange of information should also simplify the processing of compensation claims. Companies committed to a policy of corporate social responsibility (CSR) will find it easier to draw up the carbon footprint their employees' travel plans. And finally, public services will be able to provide travellers with real-time information about their destination (prior administrative procedures, security alerts, epidemics).
By knowing the traveller's preferred means of transport and their diary, travel professionals can coordinate their efforts to intervene at the right moment.
But it is above all when it comes to service that portability will come into its own, enhancing the experience of the business traveller. By knowing their preferred means of transport and their business agenda, the taxi or VTCas well as hoteliers and catering specialists. concierge will be able to coordinate themselves to intervene at the right moment during the customer's journey. In this way, by sharing information that has hitherto been scattered across the servers of each service provider, the journey should run more smoothly.
Consent à la carte
In addition, travellers will have a tighter control over the service by selecting the suppliers with whom they agree to share their data, in the knowledge that they may at any time revoke consent. At the same time, players in the travel industry will see it as an effective way, in full compliance with the RGPD, of gathering particularly qualified personal data, since it will be provided by travellers themselves. All in all, as long as you play the game data sharing between suppliers. " Portability can be a cause for concern for some companies, with information potentially circulating among competitors." observes Olivier Dion.
A few months after the RGPD came into force, the movement is still in its infancy. Onecub has announced that it is in contact with airlinesThere are also a large number of start-ups. It is certainly thanks to these start-ups that portability should take off. Whether they offer car rental like Drivy or car sharing car park such as TravelCar and Mobyparl, whether they specialise in reserving a car or a car rental. VTC likeUber and Taxify or the luggage transfer like EelwayThey have everything to gain from this flow of information.
A "commonly used and readable" data format
Article 20 of the RGPD provides few details on the data format to be used to apply the right to portability. It refers to " a structured formatcommonly used and machine-readable" . In practice, suppliers generally offer to return their users' data by exporting an Excel file or in a .csv format (flat text file). The G29which brings together the "CNILs" at European level, is a little more prolix. It states that " when no format is in common use in a given sector or context" the data controller must provide the personal data". using commonly used open formats (e.g. XML, JSON, CSV, etc.), with useful metadata at the best possible level of granularity. "
In the short term, two other innovations could become intertwined with data portability. Conversational agents, or chatbotsThe new chatbots, for example, could give 'substance' to data sharing by bringing services together within a single interface. Today, the SNCF has its travel assistant Anatole and Air France its chatbot dedicated to luggage Louis. Phil, the AccorHotels bot, has landed in the Google Home connected speaker. But tomorrow, if all these virtual agents were to join forces talking to each otherIn this way, users will have a travel companion to help them at every stage of their trip.
The other innovation is, of course, the blockchaina subject on which Onecub is actively working. Blockchain technology will make it possible to decentralise the management of consents and ensure contractualisation between the various services. " The aim is to establish trust between departments that do not know each other, or are even potential competitorssays Olivier Dion. The blockchain will make it possible to guarantee the veracity of the information transmitted and to transfer money, in the form of cryptocurrencies if necessary. "
One problem remains to be resolved before the principle becomes widespread: the data format used by the various players. While there is still no real standard in the travel industry, the gradual adoption of the NDC standard (New Distribution Capability) by airlines, then by GDSs such as Amadeus or Sabre could make him the ideal candidate. The NDC advantagebased on the open XML language, is its ability to support dynamic data flows. This is a key factor, because while the real-time component is not essential for all services, it is nonetheless necessary to ensure that data is synchronised at short intervals. " With data refreshed every 30 days, innovation is out of the question." warns Olivier Dion. Most service providers applying the right to portability still rely on importing and exporting Excel files. This makes for a particularly poor user experience. But what about tomorrow?
