SmartLivingNEXT: COMET – First data donations successfully launched

COMET gives users more control over their data and enables companies to access high-quality data for AI-based innovations. With data donations, citizens provide their data voluntarily and in an informed manner. The first data donations have now been collected via an app. More than 90% of the calls are from users who release their data for anonymized storage for research at Goethe University Frankfurt – this corresponds to around 8,000 calls per day.

Sharing their data also has benefits for the donors: The EHW+ app, which was developed by a start-up, helps users to better monitor their electricity, gas, water and heating consumption, estimate future costs and identify potential savings. All meter readings are recorded by the user, making the app accessible to everyone – regardless of expensive sensors or automated devices. Users can also synchronize their consumption across different devices and share it with roommates, while their data remains protected at all times. Regardless of their permanent data sharing, they receive statistics on their consumption forecast and donate their data in large numbers to help improve the prediction algorithm in the future.

These first data donations show that users are willing to share their data if they also receive added value through services such as better predictions. In turn, the data collected is of great importance for improving prediction algorithms. In the long term, other partners in the SmartLivingNEXT ecosystem should also be able to make such requests and benefit from data donations accordingly.