DTI’s 2025 Annual Report
I’m pleased to share DTI’s annual report for last year, calendar year 2025, effectively our third full year in operation. As I write in the note, it’s remarkable how different each of those years has felt – although there is continuity in much of our work, the context in which we operate is constantly shifting, a dynamic we are certainly not alone in experiencing in this decade.
In our first annual report, I described 2023 as our “launch” year. Last year, I framed 2024 as our “journey.” With this year’s report, I note the accelerating pace and demands of our task as an ongoing “march” forward. We can’t know what the year ahead will bring, but I have a hunch it, too, will be quite different from what has come before. (My colleague Tom has shared some predictions, in case you missed our last note!)
I recommend you read the report – it’s not too long, nor I hope too long-winded. But let me provide three bullet points to summarize:
- We shipped. We continued our work on the core Data Transfer Project open-source toolkit for simple and secure end-to-end data transfers, but our pilot Data Trust Registry project rose above DTP in widespread visibility as we shipped infrastructure, secured a platform partner, and signed up several organizations to our trust levels 1 and 2.
- We showed up. Our goal is to be at the table whenever data portability is on the agenda. We organized workshops and events and spoke at conferences. We submitted comments to governments in multiple jurisdictions. And we published original work on critical issues, including realtime portability and AI.
- We stayed on target. The world is changing, and the landscape for portability is evolving and growing with it. In 2025 we grew to meet that, adding new headcount and new affiliates. Yet our mission remains our north star: to empower people by building a vibrant ecosystem for simple and secure data transfers. As we increase our work on topics like trust and AI that were ancillary at our beginnings and are now central, our purpose does not and will not change.
This year is poised to be even bigger for our work than any of the years thus far. And we’re ready for it. Stay tuned.