A few years ago, the European Court of Justice ruled that the existing data protection agreement between the US and Europe does not meet European requirements for the protection of individuals’ fundamental rights to control their personal data. Since then, the issue of data security has been highly topical, to say the least.
At Mestro we handle a lot of data. Most of it is not about personal data and is therefore not subject to the Data Protection Regulation. This should not be interpreted as us leaning back in the belief that everything is calm. Indeed, what defines personal data is a complex issue. In a time when more and more people switch to individual metering and billing, Mestro must ensure that we have control over the data we handle, check that we comply with current legislation and the requirements of the Data Protection Regulation; For personal data does not necessarily have to be about individual data points but what is possible to extract by combining different types of information.
This is one of the reasons why we take great care in selecting suppliers and services and ensure that our customers’ data is stored within EU borders. Why is that? Because everyone in the EU is obliged to follow the same data regulation – GDPR. In this way, our customers can feel safe in the knowledge that their data is handled securely.
Although quality and security are related, they should be considered as two different things at the same time. By this we mean: security is the protection of managed data, but for us security is also a way to ensure data quality – knowing exactly what data is stored and where. By continuously analyzing the lifecycle of our data points, we can also identify where the risk is greatest. When we talk about risk, we are not referring to individuals whose purpose is to hijack data, but where the data is at risk of being corrupted. Security can be defined during the lifecycle as checkpoints, pit-stops where we ensure that nothing has been lost.
When/if something seems incomplete, we know exactly where to turn. Is it a broken submeter? Has a network company somehow delivered incorrect values or have a few hours been lost in an intermediary’s delivery to us? Sometimes the answer is as simple as a power outage, sometimes a supplier has had a data crash – whatever the answer is, we know what the correct action should be as part of our security routine.
A matter of philosophy
The quality and security of data is not a single thing. It is an ongoing process of development where we constantly strive to offer the best. This is perhaps mainly because data is the foundation of our entire business. And we believe in our business and its role in the future energy landscape. Our philosophy is that data is only useful if it is of high quality – anything else is just symbolism at worst.
We are in an era of technological development where the possibilities to ensure data quality are increasing. But we are determined to never let the hunger for a more intelligent collection overshadow the need to protect what we actually collect. It does not matter how high quality data in Mestro Portal holds if the customer cannot trust that it is safe in our hands.
Important decisions are made based on data collected, analyzed and visualized by Mestro – decisions that will play an extremely important role in the green transition. Therefore, the management of data is not just an issue for tech companies, it is in some ways an issue that concerns us all.
Therefore, all questions are welcome. So get in touch with us if you have further questions about how we work!
