German firms prepare European online personal data firm

German finance, vehicle and publishing firms are discussing to form a European company to keep personal data securely so clients can make purchases online from various outlets without punching in their information each time.

The strategy mirrors an initiative in the United States by Facebook, which created Facebook Connect to enable logging on several sites with a single identity.

Allianz, Axel Springer, Daimler, Deutsche Bank, technology think-tank Core, and Here Technologies signed a declaration of intent to develop a platform for registration, e-identity and information services, the group of companies stated on Monday.

“The idea behind the cooperation is to offer a competitive, European reaction to the platform economy’s main players,” the companies stated.

Responding to concerns about personal privacy and security, the group of firms said the new venture “aims to ensure the highest standards in data security and data protection.”

The European initiative was still a number of months far from being released, however the group of companies is announcing their strategies early in order to bring in more partners.

When making purchases online, customers utilizing the new data store would provide a so-called master key to sellers of items and services to unlock individual details required for the transaction.

“We Europeans must at last fully play out our strengths in digitalization,” stated Christian Sewing, Deutsche Bank’s deputy CEO.

“The time is ripe for a platform initiative of this kind. It will increase legal certainty for customers and enhance the European digital economy’s growth,” he stated.