In the Age of Information, companies that have made data their business are getting more competitive as they seek to tame the mountains of available data into useful, actionable insights and answers.

The banks have the data. Fintech startups want it, and argue it is better for customers, but of course, it’s better for the startups too.

“There are hundreds of people emerging who want data insights,” says Adam Paulisick, chief product officer for Commerce Signals, a permissioned data exchange which provides a platform called Databridge for data management and discovery. “Databridge sits on top of data centers. It’s a universal portal for any advertiser to ask questions and receive insights in near real-time.”

Commerce Signal’s platform works by keeping data local, making it simple for the data owners to manage their own data, control its use, and find insight—which is ideal during a time when both businesses and consumers are just fully realizing the value of data.

Now that we’re passed the early days of the iPhone—where the shiny new concept of the smartphone may have overshadowed this value for a time—saying data security is a must for any digital business (so, any business) is like saying grass is green. This is the entire selling point behind biometric authentication.

“We look at what kind of device you have, how you interact with the application, the cadence of your keystrokes,” says Iain Swaine, head of cybersecurity for BioCatch, a company that authenticates a user’s identity by looking at the way a user interacts with their personal device—behavioral biometrics applied to the security of personal data. “It’s continuous authentication, and it can sit quite nicely alongside ‘hard biometrics.’”

Hard biometrics would be voice, fingerprint, and eyes, which are also being applied to authentication of a user’s identity.

The fact is, personal data now means personal identity—and after about a decade of hacks and fraud on supposedly secure servers and devices, securing a customer’s personal identity needs to be a fast, easy, invisible process for companies who aggregate that data for insight.

“We have interoperative services that work together, which is something data owners have been starving for as customer experience really matters,” says Robert McAlear, executive vice president of marketing and product strategy for GIACT Systems, a company that provides data and verification for companies in order to downsize fraud and risk at the point of payment.

Payment has always been the weak point of any transaction, but moving that point over to the digital sphere now means it’s not just money at risk, but identity. Whether it’s biometrics, token authentication, or blockchain, all of which were discussed as options at this week’s Money20/20 conference in Vegas, the next step for data security is fortifying that gate.

“If someone has the ability to transact, we don’t want to turn them away,” says Merlin Bise, co-founder and CTO of GIACT Systems. “[That means] having the ability to patternize the data, make sure it’s accurate, and generate trust.”

To learn more about data security, join us in Tel Aviv for Bank Innovation Israel this November 1-3.Register here.