Foresight study “Data in Future Society”

In the digital era, vast volumes of data are produced every day in the economy, public administration and people’s daily lives. The datafication of society raises the question how to effectively use data to create new economic and public value, while protecting personal data and trade secrets, and ensuring a secure and ethical data use. This foresight study investigates the factors and trends that will likely affect the development of data society and data economy in the next 10–15 years, and proposes possible future scenarios for Estonian data society and data governance in the year 2035. Based on the scenarios, a set of key policy options are formulated to inform policymaking in the field of data economy, data society and data-driven public governance.

The study uses a combination of research methods, including:

The project has been commissioned by the Government Office and Foresight Centre and is led by OÜ Levellab. The study contributes to the Foresight Centre’s research stream “The Future of Data Freedom”, which studies the trends and uncertainties affecting the future of data use.