The new, open-source technology, named Solid, allows people to store their data in one central location, where they can decide what they want to share with which companies and sites. The goal is to empower people and remove the need for personal data to be held by various third party companies.

Could this, or a technology like this, be the answer to the ongoing problems of repeat and fraudulent participants?

It’s been considered before; our company developed a system to monitor research participation and identify fake identities, but it’s only ever effective if we’re the exclusive supplier because different field agencies have different systems — or none at all. A shared platform of participants who’ve opted in would limit this but such an approach would require more than a revolution in technology — it would need a revolution in thinking, too.