Understand before you agree!
The story behind LexiRate: From a scholarship opportunity to building digital freedom
By: Derrick Wesley Otieno – LexiRate’s Visionary
Profile:
Derrick Wesley is a Strategic Communications and Civic Engagement professional with expertise in advocacy, digital democracy, youth mobilisation, and public interest storytelling. He specialises in developing impactful communication strategies, leading advocacy campaigns, and fostering stakeholder engagement to advance human rights, civic freedoms, and inclusive governance. He is also the founder of LexiRate, a civic technology initiative focused on data governance, digital rights, and promoting responsible and transparent use of data in the digital age
In December 2025, I travelled home for the holidays with little expectation that the weeks ahead would completely reshape my perspective on technology, digital rights, and innovation.
Earlier that year, I had applied for a scholarship opportunity with the Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE) to study Internet Governance and Cybersecurity. Like many applications we send out with hope but little certainty, I eventually forgot about it and moved on with life. Then, on 23 December 2025, everything changed.
As I casually opened my email, I came across an acceptance letter from CADE. The excitement on my face was indescribable. What made the moment even more unexpected was discovering that I had not initially been the primary recipient of the scholarship. A colleague had first been awarded the opportunity, but unfortunately missed the email notification within the required timeline. As the second candidate on the selection list, the opportunity was referred to me, and that marked the beginning of a journey that would lead to an entirely new discovery.
The CADE programme exposed me to critical conversations around internet governance, cybersecurity, digital policy, and the future of online rights. However, beyond the lectures and assignments, one particular issue stood out during my research. I noticed a growing number of individuals in my country (Kenya) seeking legal action against companies over data breaches and violations of privacy rights.
Yet, despite the seriousness of these cases, many users continued to lose in court. The reason was both simple and alarming: They had unknowingly signed away portions of their data rights through Terms and Conditions agreements they accepted with a single click. The problem was not necessarily that users could not read these documents. Rather, these agreements were intentionally designed in ways that ordinary users would most likely ignore long, complex, technical, and difficult to interpret.
That realisation stayed with me. I began asking myself a simple but important question: What if ordinary internet users had a tool that could help them truly understand what they were agreeing to before clicking I accept? That question became the foundation of LexiRate.
This journey would not have been possible without the support and guidance of the CADE team, particularly Boris Begovich, Ginger Paque, and Liz Galvez, whose mentorship and encouragement have greatly shaped this process. Equally important has been the contribution of fellow CADE scholarship students, whose insights, discussions, and critiques have helped refine the vision behind LexiRate.
The journey is still ongoing, and there is much more work ahead. But one thing is certain: Every step toward building transparency, informed consent, and digital accountability brings us one step closer to a freer and safer internet for everyone.
Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE) is a project co-funded by the European Union. The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
