Photo Courtesy of Atlys

“Why should you delete your memories on social media when you can encrypt data instead?”

Atlys are new members to the Workhaus Community, and they’re coming in with a bang. We were lucky enough to sit down with Chief Communications Officer Sophia Namvarazad and Co-Founder and CEO of Atlys, Arsalan Noorafkan, both of whom come from entrepreneur families, making them the perfect candidates to discuss what Atlys is all about.

Atlys In a Nutshell: Atlys asks the question: what do corporations do with the personal data they’ve collected? Whether it’s from social media, from search engines…honestly, from everywhere. They argue that they’re using personal data as a marketing ploy. What are we really getting out of it?

Atlys is creating a platform to store data privately and securely, rather than to simply delete it. While there are some services out there that can delete data so corporations can’t use your information, Atlys is looking to build a central platform to privately store your encrypted data.

Starting out as a mobile app, Atlys is creating one location for your data to connect and work together. For example, imagine if the platform could allow you to track your heart rate, your GPS location or even how much water you’ve been drinking. All of this data will be provided on the platforms dashboard where you can visualize your personal information.

What Makes Their Platform Stand Out From the Rest? Here’s the cool part, you have the option to share your data if you wish. Whether it’s with your doctor, or your financial provider, you have complete control on what information you want to share in order to help build a better picture. For example, you can share your data with your therapist to help build an idea of what’s correlating your mood swings. Did it jump with the weather? Have you been going on more walks? Do certain foods bring you down? This can help build a picture of you. And while all this data can be seen, stored and shared, you still have the option to block users and to customize your own dashboard.

“We like to think of ourselves as ethically sourced human data.”

Arsalan, the CEO of Atlys, has always looked at problems as something to be solved. He asked himself why companies don’t have the incentive to work for consumers privacy. Why wasn’t their business model working? With that in mind, he began looking into the technical side of things, created his own business model, built a prototype (no big deal), and made a long-term plan. After awhile, Arsalan had a full fledged career on his hands and Atlys was created.

He built a team to target specific concerns with his business: Amir handles Engineering, Shomari Programming, and Communications and Community by Sophia. Together they make the perfect team. Nothing in the company is decided unless they’ve all sat down, discussed and agreed.  

“All of us are doing something that we love. Who can say that? It’s all of us bringing our creativity and own fields together to build up this community we love.”

At the end of the day, Atlys wants to help improve their community. They hope that their program will be used to help advance things like mental health or even transit planning in Toronto. Picture this, you would have the option to share your personal data with the TTC. This would provide them with your experiences with transit, and you wouldn’t have to share anything else you don’t want. Atlys aims to partner with companies like the TTC, so that when people share their data with them, they receive an incentive in return, like a discount on your presto pass for example.

The possibilities are endless with Atlys. After all, the company is named after the Titan in Greek mythology Atlas, the man condemned to carry the world on his back. Our Atlys will carry all of your data, which nowadays, is pretty much our world.

Visit Atlys.ca to find out more