Data Quotedly

Technology is not enough

“[A] technologically highly advanced society, containing many complex structures, some of them far more intricate and intelligent than anything that exists on the planet today—a society which nevertheless lacks any type of being that is conscious or whose welfare has moral significance [would be] an…

Data as an asset

Where data are controlled by a company as a result of past events, and this right that has the potential to produce economic benefits, the…

Public officials on data ownership

“In Germany, the ministry of transport and digitalization defines the ownership of data created by automobiles as follows:

The right of disposal shall be allocated to the data supplier. In principle this means: Data and the attributed rights belong to persons—in the…

Data Being

“‘When does data begin to exist?’

[Data] becomes real the moment it is recorded by electronic or digital means. At that…

Why regulating data as property

“[Advances] in scientific research, quantum mechanics, and quantum computing which confirm that information an any digital or electronic medium is, and always has been, physical, tangible matter.

Data quality is context dependent

“The information that can be extracted from data depends on the quality of the data. Poor-quality data will therefore almost always lead to poor results (‘garbage in, garbage out’).

[Information] is context dependent, and as a result data quality will typically…

Data-driven decision making responsibility

“The use of data and analytics does not come without limitations […]. There are considerable risks that the underlying data and analytic algorithms could lead to unexpected false results. […]

Data-driven decision making it its extreme

“Decision makers do not necessarily need to understand the phenomenon before they act on it.

If something is free then what is the product?

The question is rephrasing of ‘if something is free, you are the product’ statement. And the answer can be extracting from the following:

“The existence of a free good signals that there is a companion good [across the multi-sided market], that firms…

Understanding data-driven value creation

“[The] two moments — when data are transformed into information and knowledge (gaining insights) and then used for decision making (taking action) — are when the social and economic value of data is mainly reaped. Separating these concepts (data, information and knowledge) is…

Data as a public good

“Data are non-rival and non-excludable by their very nature: many parties can use them at the same time without any loss of utility for any of the parties. If they are not made excludable by law they become a public good.”

Why law based data ownership matters

“Economists are inclined to think that well-defined and easily enforceable property rights are an efficient way to organize an economy. They reduce uncertainty and the margins for bargaining, thereby reducing transaction costs that create deadweight welfare losses for society. […]

Why contracts are not enough for data ownership

“[Contracts] generate a degree of uncertainty about outcomes or unresolved [claims]. The advantage of having a legally specified ownership right is that the law allocates these [rights] to a party.”

Absent legal data ownership regime doesn’t equal to data ownership rights

“[An] incomplete or even a totally absent legal ownership regime does not mean that there are no ownership rights. On the contrary, a legal vacuum is usually filled up by de facto ownership rights.

What is data ownership as a de facto right

“[Data related] ownership or residual rights are not legally specified, or incompletely specified. Exclusive data ownership thereby becomes a de facto right: I have the data and can effectively prevent others from accessing the data, therefore I am the owner of all residual rights…

No personal data ownership in the EU

“The GDPR deliberately does not consider full and transferable private ownership rights for personal data. It justifies the absence of tradable ownership rights in personal data on the basis of human rights arguments: privacy is a basic human right that cannot be alienated.”

Contracts are not sufficient to protect rights to data

“[Contract] law leaves loopholes in data ownership.

A data owner can sign a contract a with a data user that forbids any distribution to or re-use by third parties. However, that contract is not enforceable toward third parties who are not…

Data ownership protection and data access rights balance

“From an economic policy perspective the maximization of social welfare from data requires maintaining a balance between data ownership protection and access rights.”

School of law thought alternatives to cover rights to data

“There are several schools of thought in law on the origin of [exclusive private rights:

• ‘single variable essentialism’ argues that the right to exclude is enough
• ‘multiple variable essentialism’ says that the right…

Whether data or information is property and can be owned

“Heverly (2003) argues that in order to determine whether data or information is property that can be owned by a natural or legal person, we must examine to what extent the rights given to information are analogous to those in more established property rights settings…

Information: appears in analogue, transmitted in digital, perceived in analogue

“Until very recently, human societies stored information on many different material carriers and in many material carriers [and all in analogue format]. […] That changed with digital technology.

Data become information become knowledge

“[Interaction] between the World, data signals, information and knowledge

Data at a low level

“Information theory starts with applications in telecommunications by Hartley (1928) and Shannon (1948). Their engineering approach focuses on the transmission of signals or messages between a sender and a receiver, irrespective of the semantic meaning of the message.