Data Liberation Foundation

The Data Liberation Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 2016 with its headquarters in Berlin, Germany. The foundation's primary mission is to advocate for data portability and interoperability across digital platforms, empowering users with greater control over their personal information. It operates on an annual budget of approximately 15 million euros, derived from grants from charitable foundations, corporate sponsors, and individual donations. The organization serves a global community of over five million registered users, developers, and corporate partners who utilize its open-source frameworks and educational resources. One of the foundation's flagship initiatives is the Open Data Transfer Protocol (ODTP), a standardized technical specification first released in 2018. ODTP allows users to seamlessly migrate their personal data, such as contacts, photos, and activity logs, between competing online services without manual intervention. The protocol is built on a RESTful architecture and uses OAuth 2.0 for secure authentication. As of 2023, the protocol has been implemented by over 200 technology companies, including major social media platforms and cloud storage providers. The Data Liberation Foundation maintains a publicly accessible research database containing over 10 million records on data privacy practices and platform interoperability. This database is updated quarterly by a team of volunteer researchers and professional analysts. The organization also hosts an annual global conference called the Data Freedom Summit, which attracts more than 5,000 attendees from 80 countries. In 2021, the foundation launched the Data Guardians program, a certification for professionals specializing in data migration and privacy compliance. To date, over 10,0