EU Shouldn't Omit Private Businesses from Voluntary Data-Sharing Initiatives for the Greater Social Good
The European Parliament is set to vote on the Data Governance Act (DGA) next week, a significant step towards promoting data altruism and fostering a more responsible and transparent data-sharing culture within the EU.
Data altruism, a new concept introduced by the DGA, encourages voluntary data sharing for social good. This altruistic approach is crucial, as much of the most granular, representative, and useful data needed to address social challenges often resides in the hands of for-profit companies.
In an AI-driven economy, many firms compete not by having exclusive access to data, but rather by what they do with that data. However, private firms face challenges in voluntarily sharing data for secondary use, including privacy and security concerns, financial costs, economic opportunity costs, and lack of regulatory clarity.
The European Union addresses these concerns by leveraging existing regulatory frameworks and developing new ones. For instance, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires many companies in the EU to disclose information on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. The scope of the CSRD is being refined to reduce overly burdensome data points and focus on material topics aligned with companies’ business models.
Moreover, the EU is advancing regulations that restrict the processing of sensitive personal data in contexts like algorithmic workforce management. This safeguards individuals’ rights and builds trust, encouraging companies to responsibly share data for social research or social good without risking privacy violations or discrimination.
To balance transparency and data protection in research, the EU emphasizes privacy-by-design approaches and controlled research environments. Strategies like publishing only content identifiers, synthetic datasets, and secure remote analysis environments help researchers and companies share data under EU law for social good while respecting platform policies and data protection.
The EU also promotes transparency and pluralism in media markets, contributing indirectly to social good by facilitating access to reliable data and protecting public interest in information ecosystems.
However, existing EU laws on data protection and privacy, such as the GDPR and ePrivacy directive, include exemptions for legal directives that support data sharing for the public good, but neither the DGA nor any other EU directive provides regulatory clarity for private firms that want to share data for social good.
Finland's directive on the secondary use of private-sector health and social data, passed in 2019, could serve as a model for the EU. The directive establishes the Finnish Health and Social Data Permit Authority (Findata) to oversee the entire data-sharing process. Better regulatory clarity could help many for-profit companies share their data for social good, addressing some of the most pressing social challenges faced by the EU.
In conclusion, the EU encourages data sharing for social good by enforcing transparency and sustainability standards, developing new legislation to govern algorithmic data use responsibly, and promoting privacy-conscious data sharing methods in research. However, to fully realise the potential of data altruism, the EU needs to create a solution that is available to all member states for the secondary use of private-sector data, providing a pathway for for-profit companies to share their data for social good.
