A groundbreaking tech project, bringing together experts from across Europe, is offering solutions to people concerned about who has control of their personal data. DECODE, a major EU Horizon 2020 project delivered by a consortium of 15 European partners, has developed new technology over the last 3 years, and piloted it in major cities, which lets people decide who they share their data with, and on what terms.

Whether it’s frustration at having to share excessive information for simple online processes, or fears about who might be able to access your details on social media, the public are increasingly anxious about their personal data. DECODE’s research and development effort has focused on new ideas to enable people to consciously share their data in an independent, secure and trusted way and donate it to improve public services as they see fit.

The project managed to strike a balance between protecting citizens digital rights and their data sovereignty, while at the same time leveraging the power of shared data to solve the most pressing problems in the city, make better decisions and improve citizen participation. The technology has been tested in two pioneering European cities, Amsterdam and Barcelona, showing that viable alternatives can be promoted and scaled .

On Tuesday 5th November, the project announces the positive results from these pilots, coinciding with the project’s final event in Turin, Italy(1). The pilots have trialled innovative technologies including smart contracts, distributed ledger, free and open source and attributed based credentials.

Through DECODE’s pilots, people in Amsterdam and Barcelona were given the ability to:

• Sign political petitions without having to reveal sensitive personal information as part of digital democracy platforms that engage thousands of people
• Share information on local social networking sites without fear of their data being manipulated and falling into the wrong hands
• Share sensor data about noise nuisance and air pollution with their communities and council without security or privacy risks and setting the data policy via a smart contract platform
• Prove their identity with a simple application without having to disclose sensitive information

The DECODE project began in response to fears about how personal data was being misused by large tech companies such as Facebook and Google. The Cambridge Analytica scandal highlighted the power of this data to be abused if it gets into the wrong hands. DECODE has now proven that an alternative is possible, with the development of technology which works in a range of ways to give people control of their data. The focus will now turn to scaling the implementation of this technology around Europe and the rest of the world.

Francesca Bria, DECODE Project Coordinator says, “Algorithms and Big Data should be used to serve citizens, improve public services and work conditions. This is why we urgently need to invest in technological alternatives that focus on citizens' rights and create public value and not just profits for a handful of platforms. DECODE shows that it is possible to direct more investment in Europe towards next-generation decentralised and privacy-enhancing technology that can be scaled in cities across Europe”

Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of innovation foundation Nesta, one of the DECODE partners, says, “DECODE has been a pioneer in showing alternatives to the mass harvesting of personal data that has so often been neither transparent nor in the public interest. It is showing that we can give citizens more control over their data; that there is no need to hand over lots of personal data for everyday transactions as we so often do now; and that data can be used much more effectively to serve the public benefit.”

Pau Balcells, Barcelona City Council, DECODE project manager, says, "We need to work towards data driven cities. To make this a reality, we need to offer tools that give citizens data sovereignty and turn data into infrastructure, from which new public projects are built to benefit citizens. This includes creating a new playing field, where companies need to be enrolled and share the vision of data as an infrastructure not a commodity."

Aik van Eemeren, lead Public Tech, CTO, City of Amsterdam says, "The City of Amsterdam is at the forefront of democratising data and finding ways to give Amsterdammers insight and control over the data that is gathered from them. Amsterdam has a strong ambition to open up its data and algorithms and work with Open Source software. The reason for this is simple: governments are there to facilitate citizens in a transparent and open way. In the DECODE project we have found ways to do this on issues such as digital identity, voting tools and citizen engagement working with state of the art technology."

Footnote

1. The event, Our Data, Our Future: Radical Tech for a Democratic Digital Society, has been organised for the European Commission by Nesta and Nesta Italia in partnership with Comune di Torino, Nexa Center for Internet and Society, Lavazza, The New Institute e TopIX, and is curated by Francesca Bria and Evgeny Morozov. Speakers include Brian Eno, artist and founder of DIEM25, Roberto Unger, Harvard Law Professor, Jen Robinson, the human rights lawyer coordinating Julian Assange’s defence and Robert Hockett, advisor to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez on the Green New Deal, Geoff Mulgan, Nesta chief executive and author of Big Mind, How Collective Intelligence can change our world.

-Ends

For more contact:

Juliet Grant in the Nesta media team: [email protected] / +44 (0) 20 7438 2543

Notes to editors:

-DECODE (DEcentralised Citizen Owned Data Ecosystems) is a European Commission funded project to explore and pilot new technologies that give people more control over how they store, manage and use personal data generated online.

-DECODE is delivered by a consortium of multidisciplinary partners - including, the Municipal Institute of Technology of the city of Barcelona (IMI), Dribia Data Research, Eurecat and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunta from Spain, Amsterdam City Council, Dyne, Stichting Katholieke Universiteit and the Waag in the Netherlands, Politecnico di Torino from Italy, CNRS from France, Arduino from Sweden, and innovation foundation Nesta, Thingful, ThoughtWorks and UCL from the UK.