Framing Accountability in Business-to-Government Data Sharing: The Gap Filling Role of Businesses’ Corporate Digital Responsibility

Abstract

This study questions the accountability gap in business-to-government data sharing: if most European policy efforts are being devoted to the objective of unlocking private datasets for the “public good” under the EU Strategy for data, less attention has been given to the subsequent moment of the performance and execution of business-togovernment data sharing agreements in a transparent and accountable manner to the public that should benefit from these. Given the accountability gaps left open by both public and the data protection regulations in the context of business-to-government data sharing, the analysis focuses on the notion of corporate digital responsibility as a gap-filler between public law-based and data protection-law based accountability models. The consideration of the specific problem of businesses’ accountability in B2G data sharing enables to contextualise the debate on the possible contribution of corporations to welfare objectives in the digital economy. Data sharing, accountability, corporate social responsibility, public interest, data protection, B2G, transparency, IP, Data Act, Corporate digital responsibility