What is the future of Data Portability?

Every day and nearly all the time, citizens transmit data to their various counterparts and business partners as customers, users, participants, applicants or even as patients. 

Data portability refers to the ability of individuals to easily move their personal data from one service or platform to another. The main are in the interoperability, standards, user experience and regulation domains, while the future of data portability is likely to be shaped by a combination of technological developments and evolving regulatory frameworks.

On the technological front, it is likely that advances in data interoperability and standardization will make it easier for individuals to move their data between different systems. For example, the development of open APIs (application programming interfaces) and standardized data formats could facilitate the transfer of data between different platforms and services.

In terms of regulatory frameworks, it is likely that other countries and regions will adopt similar laws in the future to give individuals greater control over their personal data and to ensure that data portability is a key principle of data protection. There won’t be only one perfect and agnostic solution available tomorrow, but what we can see with this EU regulation is the setting up of a cornerstone on the topic, and there are domains, like banking, real estate or healthcare, with specific data portability regulation, that are advancing faster. The development of sectorial oriented regulation and new technological solutions can be extended to other domains to accelerate adoption.

The future of data portability is likely to involve a combination of technological and regulatory efforts to ensure that individuals have the ability to easily move their personal data between different platforms and services. Overall, some of the aspects needed to make Data Portability go mainstream are:

  • More education and public awareness on data portability and human centricity benefits.
  • More regulation, and sectoral regulation, so data portability can not be avoidable by organisations.
  • Interoperable technologies and standardised APIs.