RevealU has created an app that makes it easier to request personal data from companies such as Facebook and Google. They were one of my favourite teams during the initial pitching rounds and I'm not surprised they went on to win the Global Legal Hackathon.
Privacy enhancing technologies have struggled to gain traction, but as I told Dera Nevin (who recently travelled the world to interview teams and local legal tech profiles for a documentary) during her visit in Stockholm, I think the advent of blockchain technology, the new European data protection regulation, the increasing interest among consumers and the increased political pressure on data processors could bring about a new beginning for technological solutions.
14 teams made it to the final round. Four went on to share first place. Two were from the US - Lex Lucid, a community for attorneys to review consumer contracts and RightsNOW, a service for voice based access to legal information. The fourth, Hong Kong-based Decoding Law, has developed a browser plugin that uses machine learning to help people read and understand legislation.
See the pitches at the Global Legal Hackathon website.
- All teams worked incredibly hard throughout these past months, and are a testament to the drive and talent in the industry waiting to be unleashed.Beyond the annual hackathon, we have to ask ourselves how we can substantiate what has unfolded in the past few months, how can we take this energy and propel it toward real change. We ask the global industry to help us carve out this future of the Global Legal Hackathon, because what happened here certainly wasn’t final; there’s a whole lot more to come, says co-organiser Aileen Schultz in a comment to Artificial Lawyer (listen to our podcast with the organisers here).
