KCOD’s Ploeger and Van Loenen see an important role for the notary public in authorising data and algorithms. On June 25, at the Royal Notaries Association in Utrecht Ploeger and Van Loenen presented their paper “De slimme, open stad: de menselijke  maat in de datagedreven stad van 2050”. The paper introduces the concepts of data dictatorship and data democracy in the context of the open city. They see an important role for the public notary as the independent authority to support the citizens in cities to handle the ever increasing influence of data and algorithms in their daily lives. 40% of the audience agreed with the proposition that the Dutch notary public has a role to play in the data and algorithm ecosystem, which is fundamental to the performance of the open city.