Reuters reports on the factory software platform of German-based Siemens and how the company believes its "respect for customers' data privacy" gives it an edge in the digitally enhanced manufacturing industry. The company, according to the report, "is betting the future of its core industrial automation business on its MindSphere platform," a system that competes with companies like General Electric. MindSphere collects information from connected devices, analyses the data, and uses it to help clients design more efficient and optimized products. Siemens says it is targeting 1.25 million connected devices and other systems in 2018. Jan Mrosik, the chief executive of Siemens' Digital Factory division, said the company has a competitive advantage because it keeps customer data in silos. "We at Siemens technically can't look into the data of anyone," he added. 
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