The Data Intermediaries Alliance’s general objective is to monitor, study and influence the dynamics of data intermediation and data sharing for the purposes of innovation, scientific research, development, the common good, and data altruism. The association's objectives include: (a) the production of studies relating to the role of data intermediaries, as envisaged by the Data Governance Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/868 of 30 May 2022) and other European Union regulations, such as those on European data spaces; (b) the monitoring and sharing of the best practices adopted in Europe and worldwide by data intermediaries, also with reference to data anonymisation, pseudonymisation and synthesisation techniques; c) the analysis of models of secondary use and exploitation of data, both personal and non-personal, in harmony with the different regulations on the protection of personal data, confidentiality, corporate and industrial secrecy, industrial property and secrecy in the public domain. These aims are also to be developed by means of an intense conferences and studies activity that will allow, over time, the drafting, publication and dissemination of analyses, research and documents on the data intermediation, valorisation and protection issues that are most relevant to the proper performance of the various economic, entrepreneurial, institutional and professional initiatives in general. As clarified by the European Commission in its European Data Strategy and according to the Data Governance Act, "data intermediaries will function as neutral third parties that connect individuals and companies with data users.
While they may charge for facilitating the data sharing between the parties, they cannot directly use the data that they intermediate for financial profit (e.g. by selling it to another company or using it to develop their own product based on this data). Data intermediaries will have to comply with strict requirements to ensure this neutrality and avoid conflicts of interest. In practice, this means that there must be a structural separation between the data intermediation service and any other services provided (i.e. they must be legally separated). Also, the commercial terms (including pricing) for the provision of intermediation services should not be dependent on whether a potential data holder or data user is using other services. Any data and metadata acquired can be used only to improve the data intermediation service".
Both stand-alone organisations providing data intermediation services only and companies that offer data intermediation services in addition to other services could function as trusted intermediaries. In the latter case, the data intermediation activity must be strictly separated, both legally and economically, from other data services.