How Okra Helps End Users Control their Data

In 2018, Europe established the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This regulation has inspired a set of global standards that place the user first in data control matters. Despite these standards, 81% of surveyed users—like you—in a recent study still expressed concern about their data. This guide will explore these concerns and detail how we address them as a company.

Jump to this section:

1. What does data control mean?
2. Why is it hard for users to control their data?
3. How Okra helps you control your data

What does data control mean?

According to Rudderstack, there are three aspects to having control of your data. These three aspects are:

• Data access channel
• Security control
• Privacy control

Data access channel

When you choose to make your financial information available to a bank, fintech or any other business, you do so through a channel. For example, if you need a loan, the provider might request access to view your financial history for six months. Using Okra, a data access channel, you'll grant consent to make the information available to the provider in seconds without visiting your bank or doing any paperwork.

With this in place, the other challenge is the security of your data—which you have little or no control over. Hence, the onus is on the provider of the access channel to ensure the safety of your data. We do this through top-grade encryption at Okra, allowing only the authorised party to access your data.

→ How Okra protects your financial information

Security Control

To have security control means having visibility and control over ALL access to the data.  - Soumyadeb Mitra (Founder, Rudderstack)

It is pretty easy to make your financial information available to multiple companies and lose track of them. In such cases, you have no clarity on where your data is being used and can't revoke these companies' access.

However, with a solid commitment to security control, a data access channel should also have a portal that allows you to view your data sharing history and monitor access. This level of control is essential for your financial information. Jump here to see how we give you security control.

Privacy Control

This aspect of data control focuses on how companies use your data. If a credit service provider commits to using your data to assess your eligibility for a loan, that's the only way they should use it. Any other use case is not permitted.

Why is it hard for users to control their data?

Despite users' worries about data control worldwide, there's evidence that users do little to protect their data. Here's an excerpt from an article from the Computer & Security journal (v.77):

Although survey results show that the privacy of their personal data is an important issue for online users worldwide, most users rarely actively protect this data.

Bhaskar Chakravorti explained the reason for this in an extensive article for Harvard Business Review. His take on this summarises that users lack the digital agency to control their shared data completely. In the context of earlier explanations, you and many others lack security control.

Once users share their data, given the number of platforms they interact with, it is hard to follow up on where they shared their data talk less of controlling access to it. Sadly, laws alone cannot fix this, so providers that make data sharing possible need to step up. Let's show how we stepped up for you at Okra.

How Okra helps you control your data

Okra makes it possible to share your financial information with any business to help them serve you better. For example, with Okra, it's possible to make your financial information available to your favourite food business and pay them directly from your bank without any hassle in seconds. That way, you get to always order from them and pay seamlessly without entering your payment details every time you order.

Similarly, this applies to taking a loan from a credit provider. By making your financial information available to them through Okra, they assess your eligibility in minutes and process paybacks automatically.

However, what do you do when you want to prevent them from accessing your data again? Or how do you revoke access if you suspect any foul play? For this, we built a portal called My Okra. This portal helps you manage the data shared with any app through Okra.

To use this portal:

1. Signup here
2. Authenticate your account
3. Review your data connections

With your My Okra account, you'll get to see data you've shared with any company that accessed your data via Okra, get insights on how these companies make use of your data and control how your data is being used. In summary, companies that care about your data security work with Okra!

How can we help your business?

Whatever financial product you are looking to build, we will step in to make things digital within minutes. Check out the product suite and find what you need here. And if you'd love to see a demo, we have you covered; book your exclusive session here. Let's build the unimaginable together!