EU Strategy for Accessing Private Sector Mobility Data for Societal Benefits
European Union Encourages Mobility Data Sharing for Societal Challenges
A new report published by EU policymakers highlights the importance of sharing mobility data to address pressing societal challenges, such as disease spread, urban functioning, forced migration, climate change, and disaster response.
The EU Data Act, set to take effect from September 2025, mandates that users (business or consumers) of connected products must have access to data generated by these products and can demand data sharing with third parties. This move aims to enable broad data availability for societal and business uses. Contracts enabling data sharing must be fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND), ensuring equitable data access in areas like mobility and urban management.
Projects like FEDORA, funded by the EU, promote collaborative data integration across transport modes to improve sustainable mobility, traffic management, and urban transport functioning—key for climate change mitigation and disaster response. FEDORA builds on MobiDataLab methodologies to create secure, multimodal data sharing platforms across Europe.
The EU is also advancing digital transformation in compliance and information systems, such as the Entry/Exit System, ETIAS, and digital Posted Worker Notifications, to improve cross-border data flows that can indirectly support monitoring migration and security issues.
The GDPR reform is underway to streamline cross-border enforcement and increase transparency and predictability in personal data protection across the EU, underpinning trust and legal certainty in data sharing for societal uses. However, privacy rules remain stringent to ensure user privacy while using mobility data.
These policies and projects encourage businesses to share mobility and related data responsibly. They aim to support applications that use mobility data for societal challenges, providing insights into human mobility and social interaction. Researchers, governments, and others can use this data to study and address these challenges effectively.
Mobility data can be collected from various sources, such as consumer locations like purchase locations or mobile app usage. The report underlines the importance of respecting user privacy while using mobility data, emphasizing the need for transparent and secure data handling practices.
In summary, the EU is fostering data sharing among businesses to tackle societal challenges through regulations and initiatives emphasizing data access, fairness, and cross-sector collaboration. The use of mobility data can provide valuable insights into urban functioning, forced migration, climate change, disease spread, and disaster response, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable and resilient future.
- The EU Data Act, with its mandate for fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) data-sharing contracts, is designed to promote equitable access to mobility data for societal and business purposes.
- AI and innovation in data-and-cloud-computing technologies are being used to create secure, multimodal data-sharing platforms like FEDORA, which aim to improve sustainable mobility, traffic management, and urban transport functioning.
- Researchers, governments, and other organizations can leverage the insights gained from mobility data to study and address societal challenges such as disease spread, urban functioning, forced migration, climate change, and disaster response.
- While the EU's GDPR reform aims to streamline cross-border enforcement and increase transparency in personal data protection, privacy remains a top priority, ensuring user privacy while using mobility data.
