Data Agency

Description

Kastrop, C., Rodriguez, M. et al. :

"Data Agency as a Path Toward Digital Sovereignty

One of the hallmarks of Taiwan’s successful digital infrastructure solution has been the inclusion of multiple voices, including those of citizens. Implicit in the Taiwan example is the belief that people should have a say in how their data is used. This is the principle of data agency. If governments are to empower citizens to be drivers of innovation, engaged employees, trusting consumers, and responsible members of society, enabling data agency through digital infrastructure would seem essential. Data agency may not be the most obvious framework that policymakers could adopt when designing digital infrastructure. There is a compelling argument that infrastructure, as a fundamental layer of the technology stack, should be a building block of “digital sovereignty” – that is, the ability of national governments, in particular, to define the rules and standards for their geographic “slice” of the global digital economy. Data agency and digital sovereignty, however, do not need to be at odds. Traditionally, the quest for digital sovereignty has frequently trapped governments in a reactive mode: responding to technological developments after the fact and relying almost exclusively on regulation to rein in the perceived harms or excesses of private sector innovation. One need look no further than the current Meta antitrust trial in the United States – more than a decade after the company acquired Instagram and Whatsapp – to appreciate the inefficiency and ineffectiveness that can plague governments as they try to play catch-up with changes in the technology sector.

Intervening at the infrastructure layer – and ensuring that citizens enjoy data agency – offers a path toward a more strategic, agile and resilient form of digital sovereignty. By designing the physical and legal foundations of the digital economy, governments position themselves as shapers of technology, influencing the latest innovations as they emerge, rather than after the fact. In addition, by empowering citizens through basic data rights, governments can create a more inclusive and equitable playing field for workers, entrepreneurs and small- and -medium-sized businesses.

In essence, a focus on ensuring data agency at the infrastructure layer of the technology stack transforms governments from reactive market regulators to pro-active market shapers. Of course markets – and the digital economy – are global today. To fully succeed as market shapers, governments should be mindful of the advantage that comes from aligning data-agency standards across multiple jurisdictions, rather than only locally. Otherwise, the centralized, coordinated power of global technology companies may yet deprive states of their digital sovereignty. Fundamental, and universal, principles and rights of data agency empower both governments and citizens.

If fully realized, the ability of governments to shape and enforce rightsbased digital regulation would reaffirm an open, competitive global market while ensuring countries retain the authority to:

(1) promote their own tech-related specialisms, at home and abroad, and

(2) intervene when global tech forces threaten the rule of law, public accountability, or other national interests. This is a vision of sovereignty grounded in resilience and shared norms, not the isolation and rigidity that accompany quests for data localization or digital autarky. A total selfreliant infrastructure stack or “full technological sovereignty” is neither realistic nor desirable."

(https://www.projectliberty.io/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Project_Liberty_Institute_Digital_Infrastructure_Solutions_Policymakers_Toolkit.pdf)