Data Matters: Power, Democracy, and Our Data One Year In

After more than a full year of the second Trump administration, it has become clearer than ever that we cannot separate questions about data from questions about power. Decisions about what information is collected, how it is interpreted, who has the authority to define its meaning, and who bears the consequences of its collection and use all shape our encounters with government, technology, and public institutions. Data has become one of the main ways power operates in modern democracy. It can be used quietly, through systems that feel distant from everyday life, or openly, through policies that reshape who is protected, who is served, and who is not.

Over the past year, our work at the Open Technology Institute (OTI) treated data not merely as a technical input for policy, but also as a force that both shapes democracy and serves as a mirror that reveals society’s values. Across our work, the same tensions kept resurfacing. Who has access? Who is exposed? Who has the authority to define what is true? What emerges is a picture of data as part of the architecture of public life—influencing not only how systems function but also how democracy is experienced.

We believe that the choices being made now with our data will impact public life long after individual policies fade from view.

Four threads run through the work:

1. Pushing Back on Surveillance and the Erosion of Public Trust
2. Shedding Light on the Power Dynamics of Data
3. Underscoring the Battle Over Evidence
4. Building A Better Future For Our Data in the Age of AI

Read our report, Data Matters: Power, Democracy, and Data One Year In, to learn more about each of these threads and get a bird’s-eye view of OTI’s recent work to showcase how data should be collected and shared to benefit society.