On the European Data Protection Day, the Information Commissioner Office of Slovenia has awarded the Privacy Ambassador award for the 11th year in a row. The award is meant for companies and individuals whose work respects the principles of personal data protection and consistently implements them in practice. This year’s recipient of the Privacy Ambassador award is the startup company Tibopo, developer of the mDrive system and recipient of the title Slovenian Startup of the Year 2015, which is ceremoniously announced by the Initiative Start:up Slovenia every year at the PODIM Conference.

Startup Tibopo and its solution already drew attention of the public in 2015, when they received the flattering title Slovenian Startup of the Year. The young company is actively developing innovative products and strengthening its presence on EU markets and broader. Success of the Tibopo team is largely due to the mDrive system, a product meant to strengthen road safety and to comprehensively monitor, analyse and understand distractions while driving. 
 

The product is in the testing stage

"We started product development in the year 2015 with the awareness that a lot more will have to be done in the area of understanding the conditions of road traffic participation and the area of analytics that will help drivers manage risks when participating in traffic,” emphasized Boštjan Podvršič (on the photo right), cofounder and CEO of Tibopo. According to Podvršič, the mDrive system, which is being actively and rapidly developed, is already in the stage of first tests. Meanwhile another award was a clear sign for the Tibopo team that they are working in the right direction and that the market is definitely prepared for their solution.
 

Responsibility towards users and buyers

Podvršič emphasized that as product developers, they have to behave responsibly towards the final users of the system as well as to their potential buyers. This was also one of the reasons why they turned to the Information Commissioner Office of Slovenia. “In the process of testing the mDrive system, we addressed a request to the Information Commissioner for an opinion about personal data protection. We wished to consider, in the development stage of the product already, all regulations and technological demands that are urgently needed with such systems. Receiving the award is a clear sign that we are on the right path and that we developed a system that’s intended for understanding the conditions and managing risks, and with which we will definitely contribute to improving road safety,” added Podvršič.
 

Successful implementation of all safety guards into the product

The award was given to Tibopo at the event by Mojca Prelesnik, information commissioner of Slovenia, who supported the goals of mDrive developers and added that “the information commissioner office is already traditionally giving the awards to those who deserve it from the aspect of in-built privacy,” and at the same time emphasized that “… company Tibopo has definitely done this very well by assessing the influences on privacy. They’ve built in all the necessary guards to avoid unnecessary, disproportionate or illegal data processing …”.
 

The team is envisaging many new things

With the award, the Tibopo team has gained additional momentum for even more active development and the fastest possible arrival of the mDrive system into regular use in road traffic. A study of the system is also underway and it will offer a clear insight into the possibilities and credibility of the system and collected data. At the same time, the company wishes for the mDrive system’s implementation process to include all interested and professional publics that work in the fields of traffic, transport and logistics, thus ensuring that the key interest of all users will be in understanding distractions and managing safety in road traffic. We can expect many new things from the new privacy ambassadors in the following year, and the mDrive system will be one of the main novelties from the hands of the Slovenian inventors.