What does it look like if we get this right?
Hello,
Why does data transfer matter? How can it make the world a better place?
These are the big questions I’ve been asking myself – and pretty much anyone else who will talk to me – these last few months. The answers I’ve gotten have been … interesting. Mostly because nearly everyone I’ve talked to, both people who are aware of this issue and those who don’t know anything about it, struggle to answer this question.
And I get it. There is a LOT going on in the world right now. It’s understandable that an obscure, often unheard of data right isn’t a top priority for most people. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be though. Thanks to AI and the vast, highly personal amounts of data some want to collect, store, process, and use, we are approaching some very troubling times for our data rights.
Data transfer as it exists right now doesn’t quite feel like it’s ready to make the world a better place though. Sure, being able to move your photos from one service to another can be helpful for those willing to invest the time and energy to do it. And having your financial information flow securely and easily from your bank to that lending app can potentially open up new borrowing opportunities. But data transfer, as it exists right now, isn’t yet able to truly improve people’s lives, at least not in the eyes of most everyday users.
So I’ve been trying to understand what a future with data transfer done right looks like. When the team at DTI sat down to have conversations about how data transfer can make the world better and why it is important, the answer we kept coming back to was “control.” People need to have better control of their own personal data – because our personal data is quickly becoming more than just what we like to watch and buy and listen to. It’s become our identities, our intimate selves, our hopes, dreams, fears, and faults. In our future AI world with AI friends, AI therapists, and AI assistants, our data will not just be who we are, but who we can become. We must control that.
One of the most hopeful things I’ve read to help me better understand how data transfer done right could change the world was this academic paper – Data Portability Revisisted. It lays out this idea that if we think about data portability from a human perspective, and not just a business one, the potential is pretty dang cool. It’s a pretty dense read, yet I found it valuable.
Consider, for example, the very personal data of period and pregnancy tracking. Personal information doesn’t get much more intimate than this. It’s also personal information that can be very dangerous to have out in the world in places with abortions bans and reproductive healthcare restrictions. But it’s also personal information that can be very helpful in many contexts. Imagine being able to safely keep control of period tracking data while also putting it to work with your health apps to work out smarter, your grocery store apps to know when to make sure you’ve got lots of chocolate on hand, your therapy app to help you understand why you hate everyone this week, and your medical apps to help your doctor understand how best to help you with your health decisions.
If we got data portability right, that period tracking data could live close to you, securely and under your control. No company could keep it and use it for profit or leave it vulnerable to legal demands from law enforcement, and no government could access it. But you could put it to work to make your life better when you want, easily and in real time.
This is one example of putting control of personal information back in our hands. If we get data transfer right – if we can put us back in control of our personal information while still making it work for us – I imagine there would be millions of these examples. Things like better privacy for everyone, of course. But what if thinking bigger about better data transfer could also help tackle some of the other daunting issues we’re facing in our AI future? What if having more control over our data by storing it closer to home could help address the growing need for data centers all around the world, which means less of a climate impact? As we start to see AI eliminate jobs, what if thinking big about data transfer can help create more jobs as people find new and clever ways to put the data they control to use for good?
There really is huge potential for data transfer to change the world. We just have to start thinking big about how it can do that. Then we need to start talking more about why it must do that. I know right now this feels very dreamy, hopeful, pie in the sky idealistic. And damn right! With everything troubling going on in the world right now, we need to dream big, remain hopeful, think beyond what’s real now into what we want our future to be for all of us.
My job is to help make people aware of data transfer as an issue, and help them understand why they should expect it as a right. My purpose is to help leave the world a little better than I found it. These two things go hand in hand, especially if we’re all working on this together.
So, I would love to know why you believe data transfer matters and how you think it can make the world a better place. You can either email me directly with your thoughts here: jen@dtinit.org. Or if you’d like to join a more public conversation on this topic, hop on over to the MyData Global Slack community where we’ve found a few others asking these questions, and share your thoughts in the #data-portability thread. Feel free to tag me into your conversations there @Jen Caltrider.
Thank you, and I hope you’ll take a moment or two to share your thoughts.
Jen Caltrider
Data Transfer Initiative