Taxonomy
Taxonomy
The DTPR taxonomy is a structured vocabulary for describing data-collecting technologies in public spaces. It's organized into three layers.
Elements
An element is the fundamental building block of DTPR. Each element describes a single aspect of a technology deployment — for example, "Identifiable Video" (a technology type) or "Traffic Management" (a purpose).
Elements are reusable across deployments. They contain:
- Localized title and description — Human-readable text in multiple languages
- Category membership — Which categories the element belongs to (e.g.,
tech,purpose) - Icon — An SVG icon for visual representation
- Variables — Configurable fields that can be customized per deployment
- Citation — Optional reference links for further reading
Categories
A category groups related elements and provides shared configuration. The standard categories include:
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
tech | Technologies and sensors used for data collection |
purpose | Why data is being collected |
data | What types of data are collected |
process | How data is processed |
storage | Where and how data is stored |
access | Who can access the data |
retention | How long data is kept |
accountable | Who is responsible for the data |
Categories can define element variables — shared variable definitions that all elements in the category can use (e.g., a "Retention Duration" variable for the retention category).
Categories are scoped to a datachain type, so the same logical category (e.g., tech) may have different configurations for device vs ai datachains.
Datachains
A datachain is a complete transparency disclosure for a specific technology deployment. It combines:
- A datachain type (e.g.,
device,ai) that determines which categories are available - A template defining the category structure and display order
- An instance with specific elements, variable values, and metadata for a real-world deployment
For example, a smart intersection might have a device datachain with elements describing the cameras used (tech), traffic management purpose (purpose), video data collected (data), and so on.
How they relate
Datachain Type (e.g., "device")
└── Categories (tech, purpose, data, access, ...)
└── Elements (identifiable_video, traffic_management, ...)
└── Variables (additional_description, duration, ...)
The API serves elements and categories. Datachains are composed by applications using the element and category data as building blocks.