OPAL: Privacy-Conscientious Use of Mobile Phone Data

OPAL is a project to allow for private data to be used in privacy-conscientious ways for good. Collaborating companies can use OPAL's open platform and algorithms behind their own firewalls to extract key development indicators. OPAL grew out of the recognition that accessing big data sources for research and policy purposes has been a conundrum. To date, data held by private companies, such as large-scale mobile phone data, have been accessed and analyzed externally, either through data challenges, or through bilateral agreements. While these types of engagements offered evidence of big data's promise and demand, these modalities limit the full realization of its potential. By "sending the code to the data" rather than the other way around, OPAL seeks to address these challenges and develop data services on the basis of greater trust between all parties involved.