This think piece, titled “In this together: combining individual and collective strategies to confront data power” results from discussions between four advocacy organisations, Aapti Institute, Connected by Data, Datasphere initiative and MyData Global, working to improve how data is governed.
In our work, we have found that common ambiguities in how individuals, groups, rights, protections, control, and personal data are discussed can create the impression of advocacy groups pulling in different directions and working on separate agendas. However, by unpacking some of these concepts, we have sought to uncover the alignment, overlaps and connections between our work. We offer this piece primarily with the non-profit community in mind, in an effort to add clarity and complementarity to the advocacy efforts of organisations like ours. Specifically, in this paper, we argue that individual and collective approaches for data governance should be seen as complementary: both addressing particular challenges within the status quo.
Writing this paper was supported by the Omidyar Network.