Data standards personal data

When people start looking for housing, they often have to share personal data, such as information from basic registries and income data. Increasingly, this process is done through apps, where the exchange of data is largely automated. The problem is that this happens without a uniform technical standard. As a result, citizens and housing providers find themselves in a system driven by the market. This often leads to citizens being forced to share personal information, without a clear legal framework that protects them from abuse and which doesn’t give house seekers control over what happens to their data. Moreover, many citizens are unaware of the existence and impact of these standards on their privacy and decisions that are important to them.

Currently, the technical standards for data exchange are set by companies offering these services. This has led to a maze of rules and systems, making it difficult for citizens to understand what happens to their data. They have little control over what information is shared and how it is used. 

There is not yet a uniform standard for how public institutions share personal data with third parties. Moreover, there is no public standard that explicitly protects citizens' rights. This should, for example, record what data is available, who has access to it and for what purpose it is used.

In this project, Waag investigates a new, participatory approach to develop standards for data sharing based on public values.