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How the data revolution can transform the economy

It’s time for a new economic revolution.

The agricultural revolution led to increases in food production and the creation of the first cities.

The industrial revolution moved the world from an agrarian economy to one with widespread and efficient manufacturing processes, as labor transitioned from the farm to factories in cities. 

The digital revolution, which started in the mid-20th century, represented a transition from analog to digital technology, ushering in the information age and today’s internet.

We are now at the dawn of yet another economic transformation—the data revolution—that will rapidly transform our world, just like the economic revolutions of the past. In this newsletter, we cast a vision for what a fair data economy can look like and outline the specific steps and actions to get us there.

// An unfair data economy

At the core of the data revolution and the new data economy is the understanding that data is a fundamental economic force alongside capital, land, and labor. It is the “new oil,” and it will redefine how a person thinks about themselves and their value in society.

In the early days of this data revolution, it has been the biggest corporations that recognized the centrality and importance of data. They have leaped ahead to control nearly every aspect of our data economy. For example:

• An individual doesn’t control their data. If you’ve shared videos on TikTok, uploaded photos of your family on Facebook, or posted your perspective on X in a tweet, you don’t control how that data is used. The platforms control it, as outlined in their terms of service.
• Surveillance channeled into profit. The data revolution has created a “surveillance economy” where corporations harvest data from a user’s online behavior and then use it to sell ads (In Q3 2024 alone, Meta generated over $40 billion in revenue, a 19% increase over the same quarter in 2023).
• Optimized for engagement: Many of today's incumbent tech platforms—TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and others—have chosen to optimize for engagement at the expense of safety. For example, it took Meta until this year, following intense public pressure, to update its default privacy settings for users under age 18.

In a recent survey conducted across seven countries by Project Liberty, researchers found that the majority of people around the world:

1. Are concerned about the amount of personal information that companies know about them, and
2. Don’t feel in control of what happens to their data.

As Project Liberty Founder Frank McCourt said, “The digital revolution promised opportunity for all. Instead, we’ve witnessed the unprecedented concentration of our data and power in the hands of a few.”

Far from some abstract idea, our data is inextricably linked to our personhood. “Your data is you,” McCourt said recently at the Project Liberty’s Summit on the Future of the Internet.

// A fair data economy

In the vision of a fair data economy, data—including personal data—can become a fundamental, distributed asset, unlocking trillions of dollars in value through secure infrastructures, robust digital IDs, and data commons. In this fair data economy:

• People have greater control over their digital data. 
• Interoperable platforms foster healthy competition and ignite innovation. 
• New tech business models prioritize fair value distribution through user empowerment. 

A Fair Data Economy (FDE) is only possible if we intentionally design for it. Through the Project Liberty Institute’s Fair Data Economy Task Force, we’ve been working toward this goal by envisioning the future and developing a practical blueprint for innovation and growth to bring the FDE to life.

// The Fair Data Economy Task Force

The Fair Data Economy Task Force is a group of 18 distinguished leaders led by Paul Fehlinger, Project Liberty’s Director of Policy, Governance Innovation & Impact, and Jeb Bell, Project Liberty’s Head of Research and Strategic Insights. 

The Task Force spans policymaking, investment, economists, academia, technology, think tanks, civil society, and business leadership, bringing together leaders such as:

• Daron Acemoglu, Professor at MIT, and 2024 Nobel Economics Prize Recipient
• Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, Member of Finland’s Parliament
• Mark Surman, President of the Mozilla Foundation
• Laura Halenius, Director, Data and Competitiveness Project, Finnish Innovation Fund

In the last year, Project Liberty Institute convened the Task Force multiple times to develop a blueprint for a better economic engine for the web centered around a Fair Data Economy.

// The Blueprint

Last month at Project Liberty’s Summit, we unveiled Towards a Fair Data Economy: A Blueprint for Innovation and Growth, a comprehensive roadmap shaped by the Fair Data Economy Task Force.

The Blueprint outlines 17 high-priority actions and concrete steps to create a more equitable digital future—one that prioritizes people while driving innovation and economic growth.

“Our goal is not to make incremental tweaks but to reimagine the foundations of the digital economy—giving individuals true voice, choice, and stake,” said Tomicah Tillemann, President of Project Liberty.

The report identified four key pillars for transformation:

1. Entrepreneurship and New Business Models: We need to create a new center of gravity for entrepreneurial innovation by rethinking value distribution and fostering business models that blend economic growth with data agency. This includes building dedicated entrepreneurship ecosystems, establishing early-stage impact funds, and promoting market-based best practices and success stories.
2. Next-Generation Digital Infrastructure: We need to build the foundational digital infrastructure stack—spanning digital ID systems, data architectures, and protocols—to enable widespread adoption and drive mainstream impact. This includes making digital infrastructure a key international policy issue, establishing a global public-private Digital Infrastructure Hub, and developing a Fair Data Economy Guidebook for policymakers.
3. Policy Innovation and Frameworks: We need to create enabling regulatory environments and forward-thinking policies that safeguard data ownership while stimulating innovation and competition in a high-performing economy. This includes driving market-driven approaches and fostering intergovernmental alliances to create enabling environments.
4. Strategic Capital Allocation: We need to mobilize smart capital across private markets to scale high-potential fair data economy ventures and enable technologies through traditional and innovative financing mechanisms. This includes building an LP consortium for responsible data innovation, launching a dedicated fund for FDE startups, and creating an impact investment community among VCs and family offices.

You can read the full blueprint here.

// A data revolution for all

The digital revolution led to an immense concentration of power in the hands of the biggest and most powerful tech companies in the world. The data revolution will redistribute that power, creating an economy that is fair and inclusive.

As Frank McCourt said, “This report is a call to action. Our Task Force identifies concrete steps for building a better internet and ecosystem where digital infrastructure empowers rather than exploits.”

If you were to imagine a Fair Data Economy, what do you see? What does that economy look like? What actions do we need to get there?

The People's Bid in the news

// Frank McCourt was featured in an article in WIRED on what he would do with TikTok and the mission to move millions of people to healthier online platforms.

// Tomicah Tillemann was featured in an article in Deseret News about Project Liberty’s vision for how TikTok could revolutionize the internet.

// PBS NewsHour interviewed Frank McCourt on The People’s Bid and why TikTok will be safer under US ownership.

Other notable headlines

// 🎙 A podcast from The Verge explored why platforms need the news, but continue to kill it.

// 🏛 The Federal Trade Commission is coming after the AI industry for too much hype and not enough competition. An article in MIT Technology Review predicted that some of these fights will continue under the Trump Administration.

// 🤔 An article in The Wall Street Journal dug into the mystery of why ChatGPT couldn’t say the name ‘David Mayer’. The mystery raises important questions about privacy and the future of AI.

// 📘 Merriam Webster’s word of the year is “Polarization,” according to an article in US News & World Report, which said it was widely used across the media landscape in 2024.

// 🤖 The AI revolution is running out of data, according to an article in Nature. AI developers are rapidly picking the internet clean to train large language models.

Partner news & opportunities

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