Private information. You release it in dribs and drabs, all over the cyber world, as you buy discounted tennis shoes or pay for a monthly subscription to online photo editing software, or even donate to that greyhound dog rescue.

After you enter your most private, valuable, human information, from your physical address to your name to your email address and phone number, what happens to it all?

Most of the time, it sits on a server somewhere. If you’re lucky, it’s only there for months. Not so lucky? Years.

That information shares space with the info of thousands — or even millions — of people from all over. Your information has nothing in common with the information of others. The exception? You bought something, so you all belong in the same digital bucket.

But it only takes one competent hacker to gain access to your record, and all the other records stored in the same place. And that info, to a hacker, is the gold mine.

When people hear the word “breach” or “hack” in the same sentence as “customer information”, their first impulse is to worry about their credit card number. But that’s the wrong approach.

In reality, most of the time your credit card number alone is not the prize. It’s all the other info together, from your name, your phone number, your address and physical address, that will be used to create a composite of you as a person.

And three years down the line, when you check your credit and it shows a default on a loan that you never signed up for, no doubt the hacker got exactly what they needed.

Now, here’s a revolutionary thought. What if you could buy things without out ever giving out your personal info?

Nuggets.Life is a company that already allows people to make purchases without offering personal information. With biometrics to manage their info (no passwords to be hacked), Nuggets users can buy online while completely protecting their name, credit card info, etc.

But as their newest partner, XYO is going to help them keep physical addresses safe too!

Here’s how this union will work, using smart contracts, via the press release:

Thanks to this integration of the XYO platform, Nuggets users can share their location without inputting a particular address. Aggregators from the XYO network fetch answers from a decentralized set of devices and then, once consensus is reached on the right answer, feed these answers into a smart contract on the XYO network. The Nuggets platform then confirms acceptance by the correct recipient, avoiding the potential for chargebacks. This is verified via cryptographic proof of good actor, along with proof of delivery by the courier.

We’re proud of this new partnership and what it means for people who buy online. It’s another huge step toward people owning and controlling their personal data, and it’s one we wholeheartedly support!