What do we mean by data empowerment?
A year ago, an Indonesian artist tweeted that he could give away a car to his fans in exchange for personal information that they needed to enter in an online form. While he probably had good intentions, the act was lambasted in social media for collecting vast amounts of personal data, quite irresponsibly, with no information on how the data would be used, and without asking for consent.
But this is nothing new.
People produce 2.5 billion gigabytes of data per day — while searching for information, writing an email, shopping online or using social media. The platforms we use, arguably ask for our consent, but this hides behind long and unintelligible legalese that most of us do not understand and do not have time to read. Many online companies have grown due to a business model rooted in their ability to sweep up this data, and use it for advertising purposes. As a result, the biggest companies collect and store a tremendous amount of personal data, including users’ location, behavioral patterns, social preferences, political views and more.
With data’s significant value, not only in predicting future purchases, but also understanding people’s social and economic behavior and choices, development organizations have increasingly used information technology to collect and use data to inform, shape and achieve certain development outcomes. In a review on data for development projects that we conducted with the Institute of Development Studies last year, we saw that this practice has resulted in tapping into more data sources to make development practice more relevant, agile and responsive. At the same time, however, it has led to increasing information inequality, treating people as spectators to the data collection process, or data farms, nothing more.
A better way: data rights
There is a better way to go about this — people whose data is collected and for whom development is intended, must be accorded the rights to their data, and be empowered to act on them. The discourse on data should be framed using a rights-based approach. By this, we mean that people must have the right to know where their data goes, have a say in who uses it, and be able to reclaim this right.¹ This also includes the right to privacy and the right to be protected from risks online.
At the same time, we argue that people must be accorded the right to access data that shapes their lives — including data from governments and corporations that have strong implications on how people live their lives, and how communities and societies thrive. This includes the right to access:
- Government data about how societies are governed — maps, land ownership, budgets, spending, contracts, among others. Governments should disclose this proactively.
- Private company data of public interest — for example, beneficial ownership, public services managed by private companies, compliance with regulations such as mining laws, and performance of courses run by private institutions.
- Where appropriate, nonprofit organizations and foundations’ funding sources.
From data rights to data empowerment
Establishing rights, however, is not enough. Paraphrasing Heeks and Renken,
“People may have rights to data in theory but not in practice because they lack the capabilities to do so.”
People must be made aware of their rights, able to exercise them, and able to claim redress if their rights are violated.
Beyond data rights, and data justice, we need data empowerment. By data empowerment, we mean the process where people, on their own or with the help of intermediaries, take control — or gain the power to take control — of their data to promote their and their society’s wellbeing. This recognizes that individuals have and can exercise agency, and that the process of empowerment requires rebalancing power structures within societies.
People need to be aware of how their data is used in order to be able to influence where their data goes, and who can use it. They also need to have a right to privacy and able to exercise it to protect themselves and their communities. People also need to be able to demand data is disclosed about key issues of interest, and use it to hold institutions accountable, such as governments, corporations and even nonprofit organizations. At the same time, people should have the right to create and produce data, and use it for the common good.
Data empowerment in action
We wrote about an example of this in Indonesia. A community drone project enabled villagers in West Kalimantan who were denied access to official government data to collect aerial mapping data and use it to expose mining companies that were causing environmental damage, and violating the land rights of indigenous communities. Local parliamentarians supported the initiative, which led to the recognition of community-managed lands and customary community rights. The maps were even used as evidence in a constitutional court trial to show that mineral and mining companies violated environmental regulations.
What’s next?
We have seen several examples of how data empowerment has positively impacted data for development projects across the globe. Our next blog posts will discuss a few cases where we have seen this happen, and outline how a data empowerment lens can improve the design and implementation of data for development projects.
[1] We are deliberately vague on how this could be implemented. Stay tuned for future posts on ways to regulate and control the collective use of individuals’ data.
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