In our previous post, we laid the initial groundwork to explain in what circumstances individuals can claim ownership over their personal data. Here are our main arguments:

• Such data could be added to the personal data cloud both manually (directly uploading certain copies of personal documents) or by means of important copies of customer data that individuals can now request from service providers (pursuant to the GDPR or California Consumer Privacy Act);
• We also emphasized that once that data enters into the personal data cloud, it is instantly processed and “normalized” which makes it a unique asset that is much more accurate and up-to-date than data collected by third parties.

Narrowing the Scope of What Data Can Be Owned

We also argued that personal data ownership is possible only with respect to the data that is held by the individual in their personal data cloud. We also emphasized that it would be unreasonable to support the idea that individuals should claim ownership over all personal data that is out there. Such a broad claim cannot be justified because of the lack of clarity of what data is to be considered “personal” enough.

#innovation #economics #privacy #big data