Mary Jo Foley reports:
Microsoft is working on a project codenamed “Bali,” which is designed to give users control of data collected about them. The project is a Microsoft Research incubation effort and seems to be in private testing at this stage.
I learned of the existence of Bali in a tweet from “Longhorn,” which I saw via another Twitter user, “Walking Cat.” Longhorn described Bali as “a project that can delete all your connection and account information (inverseprivacyproject).”
I found a link to the Bali project page. That page allows those with a code to sign into the site and says those without a code can request one.
The “About” page for Bali describes it as a “new personal data bank which puts users in control of all data collected about them…. The bank will enable users to store all data (raw and inferred) generated by them. It will allow the user to visualize, manage, control, share and monetize the data.”
Read more on ZDNet. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the beta site disappeared after people started finding it and reporting on it, but I would love to see more of this type of thing – including a discussion of what Microsoft stands to gain by offering this type of thing.