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A collaborative project between Goethe University and DFKI has developed mechanisms that allow consumers to decide for themselves which smart living data they want to share—while at the same time providing companies with access to high-quality data for AI innovations.
FRANKFURT. Anyone who controls their heating via an app, charges their electric car at home, or uses a connected dishwasher generates valuable data every day. Until now, however, this data has typically been held exclusively by device manufacturers. Consumers have only limited insight and hardly any individual control, while other companies are often denied access. This is exactly where the COMET research project (Consumer Empowerment and Participation in the Smart Living Domain) at Goethe University Frankfurt, together with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), comes in. The focus is on the digital sovereignty of users over their own data—a topic that is gaining increasing social and political importance in light of current debates on data protection, artificial intelligence, and a fair data economy.
From November 2023 to July 2026, partners from research and industry have been working together in the consortium project COMET to develop a solution that empowers consumers as self-determined "data owners." COMET is part of the funding initiative "SmartLivingNEXT" and is supported by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) under the program "Development of Digital Technologies."
Data Sovereignty as a Value for Consumers and Businesses
COMET has created solutions that allow users to decide for themselves which personal data they want to share and for what purpose. At the same time, it ensures transparency by showing who accesses the data and how it is used after being shared. Through an app, users can voluntarily provide additional information from their smart home and, in return, gain tangible benefits, such as personalized energy-saving recommendations.
COMET also enables small and medium-sized businesses to responsibly access high-quality, interoperable real-world data. This data serves as a critical foundation for developing new AI-based services and promotes data sharing across company boundaries, helping to break down data silos. Approaches from GAIA-X contribute to securing users' data sovereignty both technically and organizationally.
Initial Results from Practice
The applications developed during the project have already been implemented with practice partners and tested in initial use cases. Early findings suggest that users are more willing to share data when it is tied to a clearly defined purpose, such as improving a specific service they frequently use. Feedback from end users confirms that COMET's control and sharing mechanisms significantly enhance their understanding of how their data is used and provide clarity in otherwise complex digital ecosystems. Compared to traditional privacy policies and existing consent practices like cookie banners, the structured presentation of information was particularly well-received. Additionally, the ability to individually accept or decline specific data requests strengthened participants' sense of autonomy and control. They also received a transparent overview of when, why, and for how long their data was being used.
The initial results indicate that greater transparency can reduce information asymmetries and enhance the subjective sense of data sovereignty. The insights gained from the project reveal new opportunities for user-friendly privacy management. The goal is to give end users more control over their data and make data protection simpler and easier to understand. At the same time, the project aims to make more data available overall, fostering innovation and AI-based services.
For more information, visit www.smartlivingnext.de or follow us on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/smartlivingnext.
Dr. K. Valerie Carl, Prof. Dr. Oliver Hinz
Professorship for Business Information Systems and Information Management
Faculty of Economics
Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
kcarl@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de | www.wiim.uni-frankfurt.de | Tel. +49 (69) 798 34793
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