How the data is handled.

Last updated 10 November 2026

River Data is a data cooperative. Businesses across Bali contribute operating figures, we anonymise and aggregate them, and each contributor gets back a picture of the market they could not see alone. This page sets out how that works and where the limits are.

What we collect

Business metrics only. That means operating figures such as sales, bookings, occupancy, enquiries, foot traffic and financial totals. There is no fixed list: if a number in your business moves when Bali's economy moves, it is useful.

We do not collect customer records. No names, no passports, no personal data. That keeps contributors and River Data on the right side of Indonesia's Personal Data Protection Law.

Any format works, from a system export to a spreadsheet or a screenshot. We can also do the work of connecting to your systems directly, so the data flows on its own.

What happens when your data arrives

1. Identifiers are separated. Business identifiers are separated from the figures on arrival.
2. Figures are cleaned and standardised. We do the cleaning, so contributors do not have to reshape what they already produce.
3. Figures are aggregated. Submissions are combined into group totals and indices, by area and sector.

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Access is limited to the small team that builds the report.

The minimum group rule

Every published figure is an aggregate with a minimum number of contributors behind it. If a segment is too small to hide its members, it is not published. No single business is ever visible in the published output.

What you get back

You get back what you give. Your monthly River Report mirrors what you contribute: share occupancy and you see the market's occupancy, share sales and you see the market's spend. Whatever you send, you see the market's version of it, with your own figures benchmarked privately against your peer group.

Your private benchmark shows you against your peer group, never the other way round. Nobody else sees your individual numbers.

What we never do

• We never publish anything identifiable. Aggregates only, with a minimum group size.
• We never share raw submissions. Not with other contributors, not with partners, not with anyone else.
• We never collect personal data. Operating figures, not customer records.

The agreement, and leaving

Every contributor signs a short data agreement that sets out what we collect, how it is used, and what we will never do with it. You can stop contributing whenever you like, and your historical submissions can be deleted on request.

Who runs it

River Data is an independent initiative based in Bali. It is not owned by any hotel group, booking platform, developer or government body. The founder has more than twenty years of experience with large data sets, including years at Facebook and Meta, and the disciplines behind the River Report, anonymisation, minimum group sizes and careful aggregation, come from that work.

Where we are now

River Data is in its founding period. Founding contributors help decide what gets measured first, and the report is free for as long as they contribute. For background on the public figures this work sits alongside, read Bali tourism statistics, explained.