This AI-powered Data Intelligence Provider Gained From Tighter Privacy Regulations

Singapore-based start-up Near, which provides AI-based data analytics services to firms across the world, has gained from the new regulations to govern online data privacy in Europe, Anil Mathews, the company’s chief executive officer told Entrepreneur India.We call ourselves a data intelligence platform and we are deriving intelligence from multiple sources of data merge them, sort of fuse them and understand people’s behavior in the real world in a privacy-compliant way, Mathews said.At a time when major tech companies such as Facebook are facing flak around how they use and sell personal information of their users, Near says it has benefitted from all that’s been happening around the buzz about privacy.Commenting on the debate around privacy, Mathews said, “We are a very strong advocate of privacy...we have seen how some companies have misused data in the past which has led to so much uproar in the market.The fact that Near, doesn’t collect any personally identifiable information helps its case. “All our data revolves around a Near identification,said Mathews.With investments coming from the likes of US-based technology conglomerate Cisco and Australian telecom provider Telstra, it became necessary for Near to go through rigorous checks around privacy, subsequently making sure that they were in compliance with laws that came much later.