Who owns the data you produce?
Legally, the question remains unresolved to this day — and that is precisely what the platforms profit from. The DDA drives the debate on "data as property": whoever produces data — as a citizen, as a company, as a machine on a factory floor — must hold enforceable rights to it. The Data Act takes first steps; the DDA works to turn access rights into genuine ownership rights.
An end to digital colonialism.
Since 2018 the DDA has demanded a remuneration system: whoever exploits other people's data commercially must provide adequate compensation. What sounded visionary then has become the central distribution question of the AI era — witness the licensing negotiations between publishers and AI companies over training data. With its participants, the DDA develops models for making data remuneration practical, fair and legally sound.
Equal terms in the attention economy.
German e-commerce and media companies — SMEs above all — depend on US platforms' data to reach their customers, and are systematically disadvantaged in doing so. The DDA's answer: multilateral, reciprocal exchange of usage and preference data among participants, compliant with data protection law and governed by shared quality standards. Not everyone against everyone, but everyone with everyone — on equal terms.
Shaping laws before they are written.
GDPR, DMA, DSA, Data Governance Act, Data Act, AI Act: European data law is being made at high speed — often without the practitioners of data use at the table. The DDA monitors, evaluates and comments on legal developments continuously and contributes the perspective of those who actually work with data: from questions of Data Act interpretation to the next amendment.
The DDA's fields of action are prioritised and developed jointly by its participants.
Bring it to the table →