Turning data rights into worker power
Digital labour platforms collect and use extensive information about the people whose work sustains them. This data can influence how workers are monitored, evaluated, assigned work, disciplined or removed from platforms—yet workers often have little visibility into what is collected, how decisions are made or how they can challenge those decisions.
Data Safety Alliance helps platform workers understand and exercise their data rights, access information held about them and explore how that information can support both individual remedies and collective action.
We are currently developing and testing this approach through our Nairobi pilot, working with ride-hailing drivers, delivery riders, content moderators, data annotators and other workers within the platform economy.
Explore our approachThe principles guiding our work
01 — Worker-centred
Our work begins with workers’ lived experiences. Rather than assuming which data issues matter most, we listen to the problems workers encounter in their daily work—from unexplained account suspensions and automated performance decisions to intrusive data collection and the use of personal images, biometric information or information about their surroundings. Workers help identify the questions that should be investigated, the support they need and the forms of action that are practical in their circumstances.
02 — Rights-based and practical
Data protection laws give workers important rights, but those rights are often difficult to understand and exercise without support. We translate legal rights into practical steps workers can use, including understanding what information companies hold about them, how that information may influence workplace decisions, how to submit a Subject Access Request and where further support may be needed.
03 — Collective
Accessing personal data can help an individual worker understand their own employment or platform experience. However, many problems in the digital economy are not isolated. With workers’ knowledge and consent, DSA explores how individual experiences can reveal shared patterns, support collective questions and strengthen demands for transparency.
04 — Accessible and community-rooted
Workers should not need to be lawyers or technology specialists to understand how digital systems affect them. We work with community organisers, worker networks and trusted local partners to make information available in accessible language and familiar settings. Our support is designed around workers’ realities, including limited time, unequal access to legal assistance and the possible risks of challenging a company or platform.
05 — Learning and evidence-building
DSA is a young organisation, and we do not claim to have all the answers. Our Nairobi pilot is helping us test what effective worker data-rights support looks like in practice. We document workers’ questions, the barriers they encounter and what happens when they attempt to exercise their rights. This learning will help us improve our support, identify recurring concerns, develop better tools and contribute grounded evidence to policy and regulatory discussions.
06 — Partnership-driven
The challenges created by data-driven management cannot be addressed by one organisation alone. DSA seeks to work alongside worker organisations, community organisers, trade unions, data protection professionals, researchers, legal practitioners and civil-society organisations. Different partners bring different forms of knowledge, but workers’ priorities must remain at the centre.
From individual rights to collective influence
"Our long-term aim is not only to help individual workers obtain their information. It is to explore how workers can use data rights collectively to demand transparency, accountability and greater influence over the digital systems that govern their livelihoods."
Any collective use or analysis of worker information must be based on informed participation, clear safeguards and respect for workers’ privacy.
The questions behind our work
When workers gain greater visibility into how their information is collected and used, they can begin asking questions that are often hidden by digital systems.
From understanding rights to taking action
Our emerging model connects three stages of worker support.
1. Understand
Workers learn what personal data is, how platforms and digital employers may use it and what rights they have under data protection law.
2. Access
Workers receive practical support to request information held about them, including assistance with preparing and submitting Subject Access Requests.
3. Act
Workers consider what the information means, what individual remedies may be available and whether shared experiences reveal patterns that could support collective questions, advocacy or action.
Building carefully from Nairobi
Our immediate priority is to strengthen and document this model through our work in Nairobi.
We are focused on learning what works, improving our safeguards, developing responsible partnerships and building evidence before considering work in additional locations.
We aim to develop an approach that is credible, practical and grounded in the experiences of the workers it is intended to serve.
See the approach in practice
Learn how DSA is working with platform workers through the Nairobi pilot and what we are beginning to learn.