“You had me at hello” is what I thought about Personal the minute I checked out their website. I just want my life made simpler, more streamlined, and Personal arrives at my digital doorstep. Their beautiful site, the clean layout and, more importantly, its practical and timely platform are a user’s dream come true.

So what is Personal? Personal is a free secure digital data vault that stores your information. From personal data as important as your account numbers, as trivial as your favorite recipe, to business data, including your contact lists, for example. Personal takes digital conversion to the next level – it makes it functional and accessible, much like cloud technology, and you can access it from anywhere anytime.

Stored data is neatly compartmentalized into what Personal refers to as “Gems.” A user’s dashboard of Gems will look a lot like monotone iPad apps – easy to identify and use. Beyond that, Gems can be shared with others by being classified as public, and other users can access the information by downloading it. Any user can quickly keep up with “Gem activity” so you can keep abreast on what Gem exchanges have been taking place.

You can share gems to a contact or email address, which from a business perspective makes communication much more fluid. You no longer have to burden yourself with digital files stored on your computer or mobile.

But unlike some other similar sounding platforms, not just anyone has access to your network of Gems. You choose your personal network of contacts and you choose if and what you want to share with a broader public community.

While Personal founders understood the appeal of creating digital vaults of information, the interest really stems from the ability to share the information with others. The idea of social sharing and communal information networks is no longer a trend – it’s the way we live and the way we do business. So much like PearlTrees, the idea that useful information will always be shared and that sharing it is a mutually advantageous arrangement, is what makes the creation and perpetuation of such platforms a current favorite among developers.

The idea is for everyday people to turn to Personal to store their data. The next step is creating a platform where Personal automatically sources the data and then offers the appropriate data to an authorized individual. The core concept is to eliminate the need for that burden of signing forms in triplicate (times however many number of forms). Now a user can authorize Personal data to sort these forms for them.

The business potential here is monumental on both the B2C and B2B end. From a business to consumer end, users can authorize business owners to extract the necessary information needed for a transaction, a membership, etc.; on the business to business end, executive personnel no longer have to deal with long tiresome paperwork. On both sides, information is clearly communicated quickly, effectively and efficiently. Tedious work that would otherwise have taken much longer to do (and in the case of B2C transactions, deterred consumers) is streamlined into one quick strike.

Naturally the biggest question mark gets placed on just how much emphasis Personal places on privacy. Business owners can rest assured that Personal has also taken great strides to ensure that private data stays private. Aside from being involved with the “Privacy by Design” Program, Personal user data vaults can be accessed with a user-chosen password that Personal doesn’t store. Beyond that, not even Personal employees can access private data and they’ve ensured that their 256-bit SSL encryption will keep hackers at bay.