In order to effectively use data to manage our lives, we need to be able to access and use all forms of data together, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web and founder of the Open Data Institute (ODI), has said.

Speaking at the ODI’s 2015 summit in London today, Berners-Lee explained how he has long used personal data such as bank statements alongside other available data, of differing levels of openness, to draw personal conclusions and gather information about himself.

“I personally have always been passionate about the data spectrum,” he said, referring to the five categories used by the ODI to define data’s access level. The most private data is classed as internal access, with data scaling through named access, group-based access and public access to reach completely open access.

Describing himself as a “geek”, Berners-Lee explained how he has used data as diverse as financial details and years of phone-collected location data to gather personal insights about himself, although would not provide examples.

“Sorry, I’m not going to show any examples because it’s very, very personal data,” he said, adding that it should be easy for people to use data from across the spectrum to gain personal insights, but keep the resulting information private.

“When you look at the ability to use data personally, for yourself, you’ve got data from all these different parts of the spectrum,” he said.

As a result, Berners-Lee believes future apps should allow users to combine data sets from across the spectrum.

“I think in the future any sort of application you use should have that sort of spirit – it should run across the data spectrum,” he said.

“It’s putting together open data and personal data to make the thing useable.”