Citizen Control of Data (NL0052)

Brief Description of the Commitment

In today’s digital society, information is central, but we often do not have a clear picture of where all our information goes. There is an imbalance in access to information between governments and businesses on one side and citizens on the other. Citizens often don’t know where their data goes, who uses it and for what purpose. Through an inventarization and three case studies, we want to give citizens insight into available tools that can give them more control over their data.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address? • Citizens often do not know where their data goes, who uses it and for what purpose. This has led to growing distrust between citizens, government and businesses. • When data is not used correctly, citizens can suffer adverse consequences and it is often difficult to seek justice. This was evident, for example, in the childcare benefits scandal, where data was used improperly, resulting in personal tragedies. • This research focuses on restoring citizens’ trust in government and improving the unequal information relationship between the two parties. We explore ways in which citizens can gain more control over their data and provide tools to exercise this control. Through these efforts, we aim to promote trust in government.

2. What are the causes of the problem? • The causes of the problem include: - There is a lack of transparency about: · What data is collected from citizens. · Where this data goes. · How this data is used and by whom. - Citizens have limited ability to gain control over their data and its use.

Commitment Description

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem? • There is a Privacy Act designed to protect citizens’ data. However, it is often not clear to citizens what their rights are regarding data protection, nor how they can exercise these rights. It is important to provide more insight into this issue. In addition, it is necessary to provide citizens with tools that allow them to exercise more control over their data and its use. • Steps are already being taken in specific areas, such as in healthcare with the introduction of the Personal Health Environment (Persoonlijke Gezondheidsomgeving or PGO).

2. What solution are you proposing? • The goal of this research is to identify available methods to give citizens more control over their data. We are interested in both technical tools and data governance approaches (ethical principles and guidelines and their integration into the social organization around data management) that enable citizens to gain control over their data. • The research questions we want to answer are as follows: 1. What technological and governance approaches are available to gain more control over one’s own data? 2. What initiatives already exist in the Netherlands to give people control over their data and how are these initiatives perceived? 3. Are there possible good examples abroad (via a quick scan)? • Currently, citizens have limited insight into how they can exercise control over the use of their data. We want to conduct this study to give citizens more insight into what they can do.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? • The results we want to achieve by implementing this commitment are as follows: - An infographic that provides insight into different approaches to data management that citizens can use, - A report that (a) describes the available methods to gain control over data, as mentioned in policy reports, websites and articles, and (b) describes the experiences with these methods, and the potential to give citizens more control over data, based on cases selected by the steering committee with representatives from the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations and the civil society coalition Talking About Information. - Present and share the final results with the Ministry, the steering committee and the civil society coalition Talking About Information.

Commitment Analysis

1. How will the commitment promote transparency? The infographic gives citizens an accessible understanding of the various existing ways to gain control over their data. The report will provide necessary background information for those who want to know more. And the presentation will provide insight to the Ministry and steering committee so they are aware of available methods and stakeholder evaluation.

2. How will the commitment help foster accountability? The overall project helps promote transparency about the methods available to gain more control over one’s data. If citizens are more aware of the methods of gaining control over their data, they may use them. If the stakeholder evaluation shows that the methods available to gain control over data are inadequate, the government may conclude that improvements are needed.

3. How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing, and monitoring solutions? The civil society coalition is one of the supporting partners of this project and will be actively involved in both implementation and evaluation of the results. We will conduct interviews with stakeholders who have experience with the various methods of gaining control over data. The fndings of these interviews will be included in the report as an output of this project.

Commitment Planning (Milestones | Expected Outputs | Expected Completion Date)

Input for report: based on literature review (M1) | Presentation to steering committee (D1) | Month 3

Input for report: description of interview results (M2) | Report (D2) Infographic (D3) Presentation to steering committee (D4) | Month 6