Most people are aware that companies collect our data. Every like on Instagram, every search on Google, and every step tracked by a fitness app generates data that fuels business models. However, few people realise that they have a right to access this data and can donate it anonymously for charitable and scientific purposes. Data donation can offer a way for individuals to contribute to digital society by sharing their data for social good.
Tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon accumulate vast amounts of user data. This data gives them insights into our social connections, interests, purchases and movements. It is immensely valuable to advertisers and tech firms, making them insane sums of money. Google ad revenue was expected to reach $81 billion in 2024. Indeed, just four of the world’s biggest companies—Netflix, Tesla, Google, Amazon—pull in an annual combined $907 billion in revenue from this data alone.
And, with a predictable few at the helm who prioritise profit over the planet, stronger data protection measures—primarily a political challenge—are essential to prevent our information from being exploited. However, data doesn’t have to be a force for harm. If we ask how data can be used to benefit society instead of asking how much money can be made, it could hold immense potential for social good.
Data for good? It’s possible
Research institutions, nonprofit organisations and policymakers also need data to be able to provide useful research or services. Open data is a great example of this. Live information about transport is responsible for hundreds of apps that we use in cities on a daily basis. Without our data, apps that many of us use every day, such as Google Maps or Citymapper, wouldn’t be able to work.
Data on purchase behaviours, health tracking, media consumption and even online conversations, donated consensually, could all prove extremely powerful in the right hands.
Data donation has already been used to investigate a range of societal issues. Previous projects have helped us to understand news consumption patterns, online political behaviour and even mental health indicators. For instance, studies have examined how search engines influence voter behaviour, or whether social media activity can provide early warning signs of depression. By opening up access to the digital traces of our online experience, data donation could offer a way to shift the balance of knowledge away from tech giants and towards the public good.
However, rather than making data available for these purposes, platforms have tightened restrictions in recent years. As a result, companies themselves hold exclusive knowledge about digital behaviour, leaving regulators and researchers with limited insights.
A new power shift in our data rights
Growing awareness of data protection and user rights has led to important legislative advancements in recent years. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Switzerland’s revised Data Protection Act (revDSG) enshrine rights such as access to personal data and data portability. These laws allow users to request and download their data in a machine-readable format, such as Data Download Packages (DDPs).
These files, containing a user’s digital history, can then be securely anonymised and transferred using specialised tools like the Data Donation Module. Researchers can then directly engage users who consent to provide their personal data for study. The privacy-focused systems protect sensitive information while enabling researchers to analyse real-world digital behaviours.
“Your feed, your choice – how political is your TikTok?”
The Data Donation Module (DDM) is an open-source web application developed by the Data Donation Lab. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the collection of data donations for academic research. Since February 2025, for example, the Data Donation Lab has been conducting “Your feed, your choice – how political is your TikTok?”, a data donation study in collaboration with the Weizenbaum Institute and journalists from Bayerischer Rundfunk and Stuttgarter Zeitung.
The team wants users to donate their TikTok feed data via the data donation module to find out which political channels German users encounter on TikTok and how this affects their voting behaviour.
For the analysis, the researchers are interested in, among other things, what content users have viewed or displayed on TikTok, how users interact, and who users follow. Importantly, no data is collected that could directly identify an individual or an account. The anonymised data is then stored on a GDPR-compliant secure server and used only for scientific purposes.
Researchers can use the DDM web application to create, manage, and monitor the data donation project. The privacy-oriented application protects sensitive information while allowing researchers to analyse digital behaviour in the real world.
Developed as an open source solution, the application is freely available to other researchers and can be adapted for different projects.
Overcoming barriers
Donating data is currently just about possible, and research has shown that people are generally willing to do so. However, despite its potential, data donation remains underutilised and under-researched. Low public awareness and privacy concerns are contributing to this. Many users perceive data sharing as complex or fear misuse of their information. Awareness campaigns, citizen science initiatives and outreach events could all help to address these challenges.
If these barriers can be overcome, data donation has the potential to revolutionise scientific and social research by providing independent insights into our complex digital behaviour—beyond what corporations allow us to see. By taking control of our data and choosing to share it for the public good, we can help ensure that everyone—not just the tech giants— benefits from a digital society.
