Leading political figure and data ownership expert, Yang will support Pool’s mission to redistribute power, control and value from collection to monetisation through data unions.

We are delighted to announce that Andrew Yang, entrepreneur, political figure and Web3 advocate, will join Pool’s team as a Strategic Advisor, effective 5th October. A technologist and data ownership expert, Andrew will support our mission to redistribute power, value and control in the data economy. 

Former presidential candidate, lawyer and founder of Humanity Forward and Venture for America, Yang was named by President Obama as an Ambassador of Global Entrepreneurship, and his New York Times bestseller “The War on Normal People” helped introduce the idea of universal basic income into the political mainstream. 

Yang was praised for bringing the issues of data control and monetisation onto the political agenda through his initiative, the Data Dividend Project. This aimed to establish data-as-property rights under privacy laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). 

Yang believes putting the data analytics industry on a legitimate ethical footing will lead to a more open data economy with greater innovation and trade between parties. Aligned with this mission, Pool gives data buyers access to relevant, zero-party data from a new breed of transparent, compliant brokers, upending the data economy and creating a whole new paradigm for data and how it can be used.

Commenting on his appointment, Yang said: 
“The data economy is on the verge of a dramatic, once-in-a-generation shift. Individual consumers are massively outgunned and out-resourced by trillion-dollar tech companies. It makes sense for consumers to come together, pool their data, and form data unions that can negotiate collectively and command a fair share of the data economy for all. Pool Data is the best solution I have seen to solve the existing problems in the data economy because it provides the tools for data unions to form and scale. The Pool Data team are world leaders in building data ecosystems and platforms. They are building an ecosystem where individuals can take real control of their data through data unions.”

Our CEO and Co-Founder, Shiv Malik said: 
“Data is the most important economic asset of the 21st century. It is the lifeblood of advertising, automation, and digital capitalism. It is generated by all but we’ve somehow come to believe that data can’t be a collective asset. Our collective agency is denied, whilst we accept the monolithic, invasive structures of Google, Facebook, Amazon, et al as the natural state of things, or at best, a fait-accomplis that can never be unwound. How it is controlled and distributed, and to whom the value flows, is of vital importance to all our futures. Like many working in Web3, we subscribe to the belief that the future will be better than the present. A pioneer in data reform and a well-respected visionary in the Web3 space, Andrew Yang will be an invaluable asset as we continue to transform how data is controlled and monetized by unleashing the power of data unions.”

You can hear Andrew Yang’s summary of the current problems with data monopolies, his excitement for data unions and Pool’s solution in our exclusive video here:

Andrew will be joining Shiv and Tony Weber, Chief Data Officer at Wunderman Thompson for a panel on the Main Stage at Big Data & AI Toronto on 6th October 12 noon local time. The session will be recorded and you can catch up with this and other news by signing up to our newsletter updates here.