BANKS AND GOVERNMENTS CONTROLLED BY FINTECH ELITE: $7.5 MILLION INVESTMENT IN OMNISIENT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT PRIVACY AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION
A disturbing trend is emerging in the fintech industry, as a Cape Town-based start-up, Omnisient, receives a $7.5 million investment from Arise, a venture capital firm with ties to the financial elite. The funds will be used to expand Omnisient’s data-sharing platform, which aims to create a "world’s largest repository of alternative consumer data" to "grow financial inclusion".
But what does this really mean? Is it a Trojan horse for the financial elite to gain access to sensitive consumer data, further exploiting the vulnerable and excluded populations around the world? The World Bank estimates that 1.7 billion people are excluded from formal financial services, and Omnisient’s platform claims to help banks and insurers extend financial services to millions more people globally.
The platform allows businesses to share and monetize their consumer insights without compromising security, losing control of intellectual property or breaching consumer privacy. But is this just a euphemism for data exploitation? The fact that Omnisient’s platform already protects 160 million consumer profiles raises concerns about the scale of data collection and how it will be used.
Arise, the investor, claims to support fintech firms that advance financial inclusion, but what about the risks involved? Will the data collected by Omnisient be used to manipulate consumer behavior, or even to perpetuate financial exclusion?
The founders of Omnisient, Jon Jacobson and Gavin Tipper, are eerily evasive about the potential risks of their platform. Jacobson claims their mission is to "create the world’s largest repository of alternative consumer data to grow financial inclusion", while Tipper sees their investment as a way to "drive growth in Africa’s financial services sector".
We must ask the tough questions: who will benefit from this investment, and what are the true costs of financial inclusion? Will it lead to greater access to financial services, or will it simply create new opportunities for data exploitation and financial exclusion?
As the fintech industry continues to grow and exert its influence, it is crucial that we hold its leaders accountable for the data they collect and the consequences it has on our lives.
