African data trusts: new tools towards collective data governance?

ABSTRACT

New tools are being explored to provide collective and participatory means of governing data to promote the management of data in ways that benefit those from whom data is collected. This paper discusses whether data trusts are feasible structures in an African context by outlining specific considerations that should be prioritised in the development of bottom-up and collective models of data governance on the continent. Making use of international instruments, principles and established values like Ubuntu, the paper analyses the importance of collective decision-making through collective and participatory governance, women’s empowerment, and capacity-building, and how the alignment of data trusts to African contexts could help balance historical power differentials, and emphasise heterogeneity as the starting point of all discussions in the digital age.

KEYWORDS:

• Data
• data trusts
• data governance
• Africa
• data justice
• collective decision-making
• fundamental rights

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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2 J Hardinges, ‘What is a data trust?’ (2018) <https://theodi.org/article/what-is-a-data-trust/> accessed 17 June 2022.

3 A Ruhaak, ‘Data Trusts: Why, What and How?’ (2019) <https://medium.com/@anoukruhaak/data-trusts-why-what-and-how-a8b53b53d34> accessed 17 June 2022.

4 Research ICT Africa (RIA), ‘From Data Protection to Data Justice’ (2022) <https://researchictafrica.net/publication/from-data-protection-to-data-justice-redressing-the-uneven-distribution-of-opportunities-and-harms-in-ai/> accessed 20 June 2022.

5 Organisation for African Unity (OAU), ‘African Charter on Human and People’s Rights’, (OAU Addis Ababa 1982) CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 <https://www.achpr.org/legalinstruments/detail?id=49> accessed 10 July 2022.

6 Global Indigenous Data Alliance, ‘CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance’ (2018) <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d3799de845604000199cd24/t/5da9f4479ecab221ce848fb2/1571419335217/CARE±Principles_One±Pagers±FINAL_Oct_17_2019.pdf> accessed 20 June 2022.

7 SM Macdonald, ‘Reclaiming Data Trusts’ (2019) <https://www.cigionline.org/articles/reclaiming-data-trusts/> accessed 10 July 2022.

8 Ibid.

9 A Artyushina, ‘The Future of Data Trusts and the Global Race to Dominate AI’ (2021) <https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/data-trusts1/#:~:text=What%20is%20a%20data%20trust,of%20access%20to%20the%20data.> accessed 20 June 2022.

10 J Keller, ‘What are ‘Bottom-up’ Data Institutions and How Do They Empower People?’ (2021) <https://theodi.org/article/what-are-bottom-up-data-institutions-and-how-do-they-empower-people#collective-decision-making> accessed 20 June 2022; S Delacroix and ND Lawrence, ‘Bottom-up Data Trusts: Disturbing the ‘One Size Fits All’ Approach to Data Governance’ (2019) 9 IDPL 236.

11 Artyushina (n 9).

12 B Townsend, ‘The Lawful Sharing of Health Research Data in South Africa and Beyond’ (2022) 31 ICTL 17.

13 Keller (n 10).

14 T Davies ‘Notes on Data Trusts’ (2022) <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lNNhZHu-xysunPSMSWb2G28XcYhosizruia5_dIrmcQ/edit?pli=1#heading=h.jgmduqp1336> accessed 10 July 2022; BPE Solicitors, Pinsent Masons and C Reed, ‘Data Trusts: Legal and Governance Considerations’ (2019) <https://theodi.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/General-legal-report-on-data-trust.pdf> accessed 10 July 2022.

15 C Bernier, ‘Governance for Innovation and Privacy: The Promise of Data Trusts and Regulatory Sandboxes’ (2021) <https://www.cigionline.org/articles/governance-innovation-and-privacy-promise-data-trusts-and-regulatory-sandboxes/> accessed 10 July 2022.

16 Aapti Institute, Open Data Institute & GPAI, ‘Enabling Data Sharing for Social Benefit through Data Trusts’ (2021) <https://gpai.ai/projects/data-governance/data-trusts/enabling-data-sharing-for-social-benefit-data-trusts-interim-report.pdf> accessed 12 July 2022.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 Protection of Personal Information Act 2013.

20 A Ruhaak, ‘When One Affects Many: The Case for Collective Consent’ (2020) <https://foundation.mozilla.org/de/blog/when-one-affects-many-case-collective-consent/> accessed 20 July 2022.

21 Ibid; J Tennison, ‘Individual, Collective and Community Interests in Data’ (2020) <http://www.jenitennison.com/2020/12/27/individual-collective-community.html > accessed 23 July 2022.

22 F Adeleke, ‘Exploring Policy Trade-offs for Data Localisation in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria’ (Policy Brief 2021) <https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/commerce-law-and-management/research-entities/mandela-institute/documents/research-publications/PB09%20Trade-offs%20in%20data%20localisation.pdf> accessed 23 July 2022.

23 Cloudflare, ‘What is data localization’ (2022) <https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/privacy/what-is-data-localization/> accessed 10 July 2022.

24 University of the Witwatersrand, ‘Mandela Institute Research publications 2021’ (Data localisation policy briefs 2021) <https://www.wits.ac.za/mandelainstitute/research/publications/> accessed 15 June 2022.

25 Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, ‘Draft National Policy on Data and Cloud’ (2021) <https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202104/44389gon206.pdf> accessed 15 June 2022.

26 G Razzano, ‘Data Localization in South Africa: Missteps in the Valuing of data’ (2021) <https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/commerce-law-and-management/research-entities/mandela-institute/documents/research-publications/800482%20PB6%20Missteps%20in%20valuing%20data_REV%20Dec2021.pdf> accessed 15 June 2022.

27 Section 1: ‘Definitions’.

28 POPIA (n 19) s8–25.

29 Ibid s5 and 11(2)(a).

30 J Tennison, ‘Community Consent’ (2020) <http://www.jenitennison.com/2020/01/17/community-consent.html> accessed 20 July 2022.

31 Aapti Institute, Open Data Institute and GPAI, ‘Enabling Data Sharing for Social Benefit through Data Trusts’ (2021) <https://gpai.ai/projects/data-governance/data-trusts/enabling-data-sharing-for-social-benefit-data-trusts-interim-report.pdf> accessed 10 July 2022.

32 C D’Ignazio and L Klein, ‘The Numbers Don’t Speak for Themselves’ in C D’Ignazio and L Klein (eds), Data Feminism (MIT Press, 2020).

33 E Moore and C Himonga, ‘Living Customary Law and Families in South Africa’ in K Hall, L Richter, Z Mokomane and L Lake (eds), CG 2018: Children, Families and the State (UCT Press, 2018) <https://ci.uct.ac.za/child-gauge/cg-2018-children-families-and-state> accessed 23 June 2022.

34 R Adams, G Pienaar and M Gastrow et al., Human Rights and the Fourth Industrial Revolution in South Africa The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) (HSRC Press, 2021).

35 Research ICT Africa, ‘After Access 2022 Survey’ (2022) <https://researchictafrica.net/project/after-access-2022-survey/> accessed 10 July 2022.

36 J Tennison, ‘Weeknotes June 17 2022’ (2022) <https://connectedbydata.org/weeknotes/2022/06/17/jeni-weeknotes> accessed 23 June 2022.

37 Global Indigenous Data Alliance (n 6).

38 D Gupta, ‘Data Localization is Now a Big Part of Doing Business Globally’ (2021) <https://www.brinknews.com/data-localization-is-now-a-big-part-of-doing-business-globally/> accessed 23 June 2022.

39 OAU (n 5).

40 Ibid.

41 J Hailey, ‘Ubuntu: A Literature Review’ (Paper for the Tutu Foundation 2008) <http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.459.6489&rep=rep1&type=pdf> accessed 23 June 2022.

42 South African Department of Welfare, ‘White Paper for Social Welfare’ (1997) <https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/whitepaperonsocialwelfare0.pdf> accessed 12 June 2022.

43 MF Murove, ‘Ubuntu’ (2014) 59 Diogenes 6.

44 Ibid.

45 T Hlaka, ‘Data Governance in the African Context’ (2022), <https://merltech.org/data-governance-in-the-african-context/> accessed 20 June 2022.

46 Global Indigenous Data Alliance (n 6).

47 Ibid.

48 National Stokvel Association of South Africa (NASASA), ‘About Stokvels’ (2021) <https://nasasa.co.za/about-stokvels/> accessed 02 June 2022.

49 Ibid.

50 A Hutchison, ‘How South African Stokvels Manage their Lending Activities Outside the Courts’ (2020) The Conversation <https://theconversation.com/how-south-african-stokvels-manage-their-lending-activities-outside-the-courts-135449> accessed 20 June 2022.

51 G. Dafuleya, ‘Why Lending through Community-based Organisations Makes Sense’ (2015) The Conversation <https://theconversation.com/why-lending-through-community-based-organisations-makes-sense-50263> accessed 20 June 2022.

52 National Stokvel Association of South Africa (NASASA), ‘Our Regulatory Framework’ (2021) <https://nasasa.co.za/about-us/our-regulatory-framework/> accessed 20 June 2022.

53 S Matuku and E Kaseke, ‘The Role of Stokvels in Improving People’s Lives: The Case in Orange Farm, Johannesburg, South Africa’ (2014) 50 Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk 504, 505.

54 Hutchison (n 50).

55 First National Bank (FNB), ‘Stokvel Account’ (2022) <https://www.fnb.co.za/savings-account/stokvel-account.html> accessed 15 June 2022.

56 Matuku (n 53) 504.

57 Ibid 505–506.

58 Ibid 512.

59 Hlaka (n 45).

60 Keller (n 10).

61 Tennison (n 30).

62 T Ilori, ‘Maximising Public Awareness for Participatory Data Governance in African Countries’ (2022) Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CESA) <https://cseaafrica.org/maximizing-public-awareness-for-participatory-data-governance-in-african-countries/> accessed 20 July 2022.

63 Ibid.

64 A Artyushina, ‘Privacy in a Sustainable Data Economy: Lessons from Existing and Failed Data Trusts’ (2021) <https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/data-trusts2/> accessed 20 June 2022.

65 N Couldry and U Mejias, The Costs of Connection (Stanford University Press, 2019).

66 L Taylor, ‘What is Data Justice? The Case for Connecting Digital Rights and Freedoms Globally’ (2017) 4 Big Data & Society 1–14, 1 <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2053951717736335> accessed 23 July 2022.

67 Ibid; Research ICT Africa, ‘From Data Protection to Data Justice- redressing the Uneven Distribution of Opportunities and Harms in AI’ (2022), <https://researchictafrica.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/From-Data-Protection-to-Data-Justice.pdf> accessed 12 June 2022.

68 Keller (n 10); Water Community Action Network, ‘About Us’ (2022) <http://watercan.org.za/about-us/> accessed 15 June 2022; OpenStreetMap, ‘About OSM Community’ (n.d.) <https://welcome.openstreetmap.org/about-osm-community/history-of-osm/> accessed 15 June 2022; Wikidata, ‘Introduction’ (2022) <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Introduction> accessed 15 June 2022; Driver’s Seat, ‘Home’ (2022) <https://driversseat.co/> accessed 15 June 2022.

69 Artyushina (n 64).

70 Ruhaak (n 20).

71 Tennison (n 21).