Trustworthy Data Spaces: A Dialogue between North and South

Parminder Jeet Singh took part in a workshop on “Trustworthy Data Spaces: A Dialogue between North and South” during the 2022 WTO Public Forum on 29 September. The workshop was organized by Diplo Foundation, the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM, Switzerland), and the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP).

Although data is non-rivalrous, data controllers have the capacity to restrict access to data for a myriad of reasons, such as protecting privacy, intellectual property, or to maintain a competitive edge. At present, there are insufficient incentives for data to be shared by data controllers, and insufficient obligations for them to fulfil the social value of data.

This workshop addressed data sharing and data flows from national and international perspectives. It aimed to establish a bridge between proposals advanced by actors in the Global North and in the Global South, such as Switzerland’s proposal of trustworthy data spaces, Japan’s proposal of data free flows with trust, and India’s notion of community data. The speakers discussed how these different proposals could contribute to promoting a more equal distribution of benefits in the data economy and shed light on current negotiations on data flows taking place at the WTO.

Besides Parminder, Andrin Eichin, Head of Data Policy Issues, Swiss Federal Office of Communications, OFCOM, Switzerland; Simon Evenett, Professor of International Trade and Economic Development, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland; and Torbjorn Fredriksson, Head E-commerce and Digital Economy Branch, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) spoke at the workshop. The session was moderated by Marilia Maciel, Head, Digital Commerce and Internet Policy, Diplo.

You can find the recording of the session here.