Data Trade Union

Daily you give away valuable data in exchange for social media that you don't even like. At the same time, the same companies are trying to create AI systems who is going to take over your job, maybe trained on exactly your data. We can do better if we build a real counterpower to the companies.

Imagine a digital future where you are in control. You're offered digital services and social media that give you what you actually want, rather than what algorithms think will make you swipe as far as possible. If the KI economy really takes off, as some predict, you won't be left without work and income. The KI companies pay a hefty sum for the data they rent from you to train their KI models.

To realize this utopia, we need organizations that change the power relationships in the digital economy. We need unions for data.

This is how the associations would work: One joins for a reasonable sum — maybe 300 kronor a year. The association is authorized to negotiate the use of your data, and that of others, as long as it is in the interests of its members.

Instead of exchanging the data for access to services or selling them, rented they out for specific purposes and time periods. Company and government agencies are granted access, but ownership remains with the members and can be withdrawn if conditions are not met.

A computer association would be able to afford to hire experts in law and technology to safeguard its members' interests. Today we stand alone in the face of the companies and have to settle for the terms offered to access on social media and Google Maps. When the association negotiates on behalf of many, we will be able to claim our right, not just accept cookies.

Different associations will compete for members and offer different profiles. Some will be more restrictive in their sharing of data to ensure maximum privacy. Others will share more data to ensure the most compensation. Some will specialize in providing the production of high quality data. This is how people get the freedom to choose.

The scheme will create great value for society as a whole by ensuring more companies and agencies access to vital data. Today, the companies sitting on the data in many situations have a financial interest in denying others access. With that, we're missing out on enormous values.

Data is a non-rival good -- my data usage does not prevent your use of the same data. From a socio-economic perspective, we should therefore facilitate as much data sharing as possible. The computer unions will facilitate such proliferation. It is in any member's financial self-interest that as many people as possible use the data for as long as they are willing to pay for it.

One challenge is that the data associations will only work if you organize enough members. If the companies can get enough data from non-members, it will undermine the associations' basis for existence.

If people think about their wallets and control me own data, the answer should be simple. It is better to assert one's right through membership than to stand outside with hat in hand. The greater the value created in the digital economy, the greater the value data associations will generate for their members.

In the beginning, however, the authorities should consider rewarding those who join the associations. In the long run, this will pay off for society anyway. While Norway and other countries struggling to tax the big tech companies, the revenue from data and more productive companies will create huge tax revenues.

A bigger problem is the competition between countries. If Norway is the only country that organizes itself, we run the risk that companies will avoid Norway and rather obtain data from unorganized countries. This is a challenge that requires international coordination. Data associations are a much better project for the EU than GDPR legislation, which leads to cookie fatigue.

Data associations will also be an insurance against the unemployment that can result from transformative KI. To the extent that companies manage to create artificial, general intelligence, it will be because they are trained on our data. With data associations, everyone will be able to be assured a piece of the KI pie.

The digital economy has long been a Wild West where the strongest win. It's time for most people to constitute a counterpower to concentrated interests. Every new era needs new institutions. The unions have not played out their role. They just need new content.