Quick Hits from DTI
I have three items to share from our recent work at the Data Transfer Initiative: two recently published external articles, and an update on network growth. Enjoy!
Consent and portability piece by Tom Fish at Tech Policy Press
Today, Tech Policy Press published “Consent, pay or port” by DTI Head of Europe Tom Fish. Tom digs into a privacy question that has been at a roiling boil in Europe for some time: whether current modalities of consent to data collection and use in order to use a service without payment are appropriate. Some companies – including Meta, one of DTI’s founding members – offer paid access to their services, and in some circumstances, also options for less personalized advertising. Tom identifies an orthogonal issue that is critical for meaningful consent: whether or not users can effectively port their data between services. Data portability is a necessary condition for empowering users and making sure that consent, and particularly the withdrawal of consent, is meaningful. Portability helps make markets work, and work to serve the interests of consumers.
AI and privacy piece by Jen Caltrider at Fast Company
DTI Director of Research and Engagement Jen Caltrider has a new piece in Fast Company this week entitled “AI is killing privacy. We can’t let that happen.” In it, Jen writes of the often-overlooked significance of the printing press in the history of privacy – how books give us space to read and to think in solitude. She proposes that in the emerging era of AI – one already marked by, let’s say, less-than-ideal levels of user empowerment over personal data – we look to data portability, “the underdog of privacy rights”, as the lever that we need to change the future of privacy for the better. Check it out!
New affiliates
DTI is a membership organization, but a social welfare variant, not a trade association; our structure is one of our superpowers, in my view, as it lets us be grounded and aspirational in equal parts. I wrote a fairly extensive piece last summer about how and why we work with industry to put real solutions into real people’s hands, while maintaining strategic independence and unwavering dedication to our mission of empowering people through data portability.
For some months now, our website has listed our organizational partners, including founding members Apple, Google, and Meta and partners Amazon and ErnieApp. We’ve also long listed some other organizations with which we have various levels of association; the European Internet Form and the World Wide Web Consortium, both with long established membership structures, along with FediForum and the Trust Over IP Foundation.
But our network is broader than even these data points indicate. And in particular, we’ve begun identifying industry collaborators who provide immense support and alignment on specific projects, and with whom we’ve decided to codify a formal relationship as “affiliates.” Our website now lists Inflection AI, which joined last year as our first affiliate, as well as Fabric and Koodos. We’re delighted to have them on board the DTI train, and are looking forward to continued collaboration.
If you’re reading this and thinking, hey I want to get in on that – there’s a “Contact Us” link at the bottom of our website, or here: send us a note!