Stumbled upon an article on FT on New Institutions are Needed for Digital Age which mentioned that “Open Data Institute and others are exploring data trusts — where control over data-sharing is transferred to an independent third party, legally bound to ensure its use for a defined purpose”. This then led me to a report published recently by Open Data Institute on data trusts which summarizes the framework and findings from their first in-depth study on role of data trusts.

While the concept/term may not be new to us, the interest/appetite is definitely growing among government and large corporations wanting to create more value through data sharing without worrying about privacy issues. Below is the screenshot of data trust framework for your easy reference.

Their definition of data trust is independent of technology architectures – centralized or decentralized platform, cloud hosting, blockchain or not doesn’t matter – as long as it is technically flexible to our changing needs.

If you are interested, you can read more about it here and the report here.