Data cooperatives seek to achieve a number of objectives, in particular to strengthen the position of individuals in making informed choices before consenting to data use, influencing the terms and conditions of data user organisations attached to data use in a manner that gives better choices to the individual members of the group or potentially finding solutions to conflicting positions of individual members of a group on how data can be used where such data relates to several data subjects within that group. In that context it is important to acknowledge that the rights under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 are personal rights of the data subject and that data subjects cannot waive such rights. Data cooperatives could also provide a useful means for one-person undertakings and SMEs which, in terms of knowledge of data sharing, are often comparable to individuals.
