At Mozilla Foundation, we believe privacy-protecting research is essential to understanding harmful data practices at scale. This kind of access is foundational to maintaining trust—and to building better technology ecosystems.
Here's the problem: Online platforms typically set out contractual terms under which researchers are allowed to scrutinize them. Often, these terms actually hinder rigorous third party research, by preventing basic research practices—combining datasets, bringing new colleagues onto a project, submitting work for peer review, or publishing independently.
We decided to flip the script. We asked the data rights agency AWO to draft a prototype data sharing agreement which reflects user privacy and data security, and doesn't impose conditions that unnecessarily constrain research. The result is a model contract that both platforms and researchers can adapt. We believe it centers the realities of public-interest platform research while respecting user privacy and legitimate business interests.
If you're a public interest platform researcher, here are model data-sharing terms you adapt and can use right now.
We welcome contributions from platform researchers, data privacy and security experts, online platforms, and others with relevant expertise.
Download and adapt these model terms for your research needs, and contribute your adapted versions back to this repo.
To contribute: Fork, branch, and submit PRs
Public Data Access Programs, A First Look
These terms are maintained by Mozilla Foundation and AWO