Member

What better example of how empowering collective data control can be found than its use here in giving self-employed gig workers—those with the fewest protections in our economy and those with the greatest need—the power of knowledge? Indeed, it is instructive to look at the example of the Rodeo app, a British-built tech start-up that has taken the idea of giving gig workers control through data and applied it to delivery workers. However, in the current legal environment, it is very difficult to access the data that individual workers would like to hand over for the common and collective good. This is technically possible but, in practice, it is hard and often subject to well-resourced legal challenge. The cost of regulatory response makes gathering data one by one onerous. If these amendments were in place, it would be routine, contractual, time limited and subject to a code of conduct. The opportunity for citizens’ empowerment is immense, but so too is the opportunity for economic growth.