Saving the web by decentralizing data networks? A socio-technical reflection on the promise of decentralization and personal data stores

In this article we elaborate on Personal Information Management Systems (PIMS) or Personal Data Stores (PDS) that provide a person with affordances for managing his/her personal data, giving him/her granular control over the data captured about him/her, and over how that data is shared and used. We examine the promise of PDS-enabled data cooperatives from a socio-technical approach by critically unpacking the current discourse on data activism and related concepts such as data cooperatives, data collaboratives or data bazaars in the context of PDSs. We highlight critical reflections on user empowerment, power symmetries and user appropriation. While we see promise in a collective approach to the management of (personal) data, as it may reorient markets and change who benefits from datafication, we point out that further research into the potential obstacles or hurdles that hinder the implementation of data cooperatives in a PDS-ecology and into what consumers think about these and other possible data management models, is needed.