John Deere’s digital transformation

The exchange of data between farmers, contractors, dealers and other business partners is ever increasing. The amount of data now recorded by machines, along with its transfer and processing, continues to raise questions in terms of data ownership and usage rights.

John Deere has produced an up-to-date explanation of its data usage and security policies. This is to inform farmers and contractors about data control while using John Deere digital services.

With today’s machines becoming more complicated, as well as more automated, the use of sensors is ever increasing. These sensors generate large amounts of data. If analysed, this data can provide valuable insights, allow more automated workflows and help owners to make fact-based decisions.

Before any information can be collected by machines or mobile sensors, the customer needs to be informed about data usage by their John Deere dealer. It is important to note that only when the customer agrees in writing to the procedure that the data can be sent via the JDLink™ telematics module.

John Deere claims all data handling is carried out in accordance with the latest legal regulations under EU law (GDPR). For customers to gain access to infrastructure, they must create their own account on MyJohnDeere.com. From here, the data collected by machines can be viewed in various applications on MyJohnDeere.com. The customer can control with the press of a button the exchange of data between partners, such as contractors, consultants or JD dealer staff.

Within MyJohnDeere.com there is an application called Operations Center. The customer decides who belongs to their staff and who can be partnered with the business.

This changes the level of information that each can view and possibly edit. Staff and partners will need their own account to securely control the exchange of information. Customers are free to download their own information at any time via John Deere infrastructure or by email.

Other services that John Deere provides, such as JD fuel guarantee or expert alerts, require the use of disclosed customer data. Customers will have to sign a further special consent form, which can be revoked at any time at the customer’s discretion. The reason for this is that the customer is allowing constant monitoring of machine data.

John Deere’s handling of data usage rights was outlined in spring of 2018 in the farmers data sovereignty agreement, a joint recommendation by seven leading industry associations and institutions in Germany.

John Deere says it will not use any additional data without the consent of the customer and that it has followed the correct procedures in terms of GDPR.

John Deere claims that if data is managed correctly, the use of JDlink™ and similar platforms will revolutionise farming in terms of productivity and efficiency.

John Deere Operations Center allows customers to see what is happening with their machines, as well as collaborating with external parties. These are some of the features it provides.

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