As personal data becomes one of the most valuable economic assets in the digital age, discussions around data ownership and rights are starting to gain momentum.
Currently, individuals have little control over how their personal information is collected, stored, and monetized. While regulations like GDPR and CCPA focus on privacy and consent, they stop short of recognizing personal data as something individuals can legally own.
Looking ahead, could we see a future where:
- Individuals have full legal ownership of their personal data, with the ability to sell, license, or restrict its use?
- Data is treated like intellectual property, with royalties paid to the original creators (i.e., users)?
- Governments implement a "data dividend" or universal basic income model based on the wealth generated by user data?
Or would this approach create more problems than it solves?
- Would it lead to further monetization of privacy where people are pressured to trade personal data for financial survival?
- Could Big Tech lock down even more control by making data ownership compliance too difficult for individuals?
- Is decentralized identity (DID) and Web3 technology a more viable path?
I explore these questions in Limited Connectivity, a new project where I connect the dots between technology, power, and digital rights. If you're interested, I recently wrote about this topic in more depth:
https://limitedconnectivity.substack.com/p/limited-connectivity-1-your-data
Would love to hear perspectives from this community—will personal data ownership be the next big debate in digital rights, or is this an idea that will never take off?
Will personal data become a legally owned asset in the future?
byu/adudeonthenet inFuturology
14 Comments
🤣. No. Just like we don’t own the rights to our own DNA should any medical advancements arise from it.
Yeah they will never let us own our personal data. It would be nearly impossible to keep track of and pay out for usage.
No, the data power grab has already happened and without a serious political revolution, that power isn’t going to be handed back.
This is like the “people could make a modest living just by selling their data” pipe dream.
The problem is if you’re not spending money, your data isn’t worth very much.
The thing is, individually, it’s just not worth very much.
Not if the current trends continue. But maybe we’ll bounce back to sanity before AGI emerges as a servant of the world’s worst people.
I remember reading a book that took place a bit in the future. I don’t remember the name, but let’s just call it Omnicorp, the big corporation that rules everything. A guy was being sworn into court: “do you swear that the testimony you are about to give will become the exclusive intellectual property of Omnicorp?”.
Maybe as a new-age civil rights, but judging from how the US specifically Iowa today is trampling on civil rights protections, I am not dreaming.
We essentially are already selling our data already. If social media companies couldn’t use your data you would be paying for service instead.
Just my opinion. But it has power right now because it’s free. If companies have to start paying, I’m sure they’ll find a way to circumvent or just anonymize the data and claim they can’t reimburse anyone because of there’s no telling who the data belongs to.
It’s unlikely but everyone should own their data and have to opt into companies selling it. Right now it’s the other way around with people opting out.
If I walk down the street and see a nice house, I can snap a picture. If I do, I own that photo. I can sell it.
The owner of the house is irrelevant. If I know their name I can can put that in the photo. I can put their address, gps coordinates, their birthday.
How does one prevent me? I have that first amendment right to do all of this.
There are plenty of countries that can prohibit this behavior, but without changing the construction the US can’t.
A website is no different. They own everything they collect. At best we can say that they aren’t allowed to collect certain data as a requirement to use the site,
It will be “food” for AI, otherwise how will they truly know we exist.
whats stopping platforms from saying they have partial ownership of your data?