Theresa is a Governance and Law in Digital Society LLM student.  Below is an interview with her regarding the internship she started, as part of her studies in the programme, with the The Foundation of New Responsibility (stiftung neue verantwortung). You can learn more about why she chose GLDS and what she thinks about the project based approach of the master In this video.

How have your first four weeks of your internship been?

Honestly it has been very busy. Balancing our classes and assignments with getting to know the company has been challenging but also very exciting. My supervisor is super cool. She knows how busy I am and she understands if I cannot complete all my ‘to do’s’. I am currently really enthusiastic about the project I am working on. So it has been a lot but very exciting at the same time.

How has integrating into the organization without physically being there been for you?

It actually worked really well, especially as this is already my second internship during Corona times. Doing research or stuff where you have to gather knowledge and information is quite doable, and of course interviewing people online is not that much of an issue. Of course, you do not get to know the organisation as well as if you were at the office as then you would be able to chitchat with people and learn about other areas. However, the team is already quite used to working remotely so it has been quite smooth.

Are you working alone as a part of a team?

I work as part of the team, although currently it is just me and the project lead, who is also my supervisor. It is one of the smallest projects at the organisation/foundation and investigates issues around the data economy. My supervisor is extremely knowledgeable and  well-networked in the public and private sector.

You mentioned that you are working on the project of data economy, can you tell me more about that?

The data economy project investigates how the current data economy works and how it could be different from a legal, technical, and social standpoint. Within that, I am working specifically on a research on so-called data trusts. Data trusts are part of this discussion regarding how we can shift the current data economy. However, the concept remains still vague and thus we are trying to come up with four concrete use cases about how a data trusts can be envisioned in the future.

How would you define a data trust?

A data trust is an intermediate organisation that facilitates data exchanges between stakeholders and parties. There are different concepts regarding whose interests they are protecting in the project, for example citizens’ interests.  An example is with regards to agriculture where there is a lot of talk about sharing data and research between stakeholders. However, with agriculture there are also a lot of private parties, which all have data that is mostly stored in data silos, and they are often afraid to share their data. Thus, in this context a data trust can jump in and make sure that data is shared safely and under the terms defined by the relevant stakeholders. We also look at other examples in the context of personal data, medical data, and supply chain control. These examples will be our use case examples and we will get a group of experts together for a workshop to discuss the legal, social, and technical challenges of developing data trusts in these areas.

Do you have any ideas about what you would like to write your thesis about?

I am not entirely sure yet but it will probably be related to data trusts. I have thought about writing about one of the specific use cases. But another idea would be writing about data brokers, actors that trade data for purposes such as advertising, something that is highly questionable under the GDPR. I could compare data brokers with the concept of data trusts and  consider whether data trusts could be a solution. I have lots of ideas and am currently brainstorming.

What are some of the daily tasks that keep you busy?

Doing research for the use cases and finding out who already has set up data trust- like pilots in this area. The German government included data trusts as an element of their recently published data strategy, but actually there is very little work being done to pilot this concept and implement it. Finding organisations to talk to and discuss the challenges and opportunities with is quite difficult. . In the coming weeks we will be compiling a list of experts that we can invite to our workshop. I also do a number of tasks not directly related to the project on data trusts. For example, my supervisor is invited regularly to talk to politicians. Sometimes,  I help her with preparing position papers for such occasions. So, mainly what I am doing is research.

Does this internship help you discover more about what you would like to do after your studies?

I cannot answer that with certainty yet as I still have so many topics that I am interested in. However, I have realised that I really enjoy working for civil society organisations as it is very dynamic and creative work environment. There are a lot of clever and inspiring people that gather at these organisations. People share a lot of information about their project and how they contribute to solving real-life problems. I have also considered staying at a university for doing research, but I would probably not do that immediately after my masters.

- Interview by:  Lucas Haitsma, PhD Researcher in Human Rights and Artificial Intelligence

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