Data Sharing through Data Trustees
Data are the raw materials of the digital transformation. But driven by concerns over a loss of control, market participants exchange data only cautiously. As a consequence, other market actors frequently lack access to relevant data. In this context, data trustees could serve as trustworthy intermediaries. Pascal T. Sierek, research fellow at the Institute, examines in his doctoral dissertation the private law foundations associated with setting up data trustee relationships.
In order to seize upon the potential of big data or artificial intelligence, actors such as companies, research institutes, and government institutions need access to extensive and high-quality data. But exactly this is regularly lacking. A key obstacle is the reluctance of data owners to share their data with potential data users. Data owners typically have an interest in restricting data users’ processing of shared data in order to avoid disadvantages such as the disclosure of data to third parties. At the same time, however, data owners find it difficult to protect this interest when sharing data. The use of data trustees could help to increase their willingness to share data. As special intermediaries, data trustees stand between data owners and data users and support them in the controlled exchange of data.
In his study, Sierek focuses on data trustee relationships in which data trustees exclusively represent the interests of data owners. He examines the underlying legal relationship from a private law perspective and identifies its basic contractual structure. With a view to the relationship between the data owner and the trustee, he develops criteria for the design of a fiduciary data trust that preserves data sovereignty.
Dr. Pascal T. Sierek studied law at Bucerius Law School and Stellenbosch University in South Africa. In 2024 he earned his doctoral degree at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. His dissertation was honoured with the 2025 TELEKOM-Prize. He has been employed at the Institute as a research fellow since February 2025.
Image: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law / Bastian Kurzynsky
