Picture credit: selva
All too frequently we hear of large losses of personal data. But who owns your “personal” data?
Do you always own your data, or does your data belong to someone else once you have entrusted it to them?
And, of course, the fundamental question is: do you care about who owns your personal data?
I recently attended a parliamentary/ industry roundtable meeting, convened to consider the effects of data losses on stakeholder confidence.
The roundtable meeting was a major disappointment [to me] because the majority of delegates failed to address the challenge. But there was a lively debate about the real nature of “personal” data, particularly in terms of ownership.
At the roundtable, some delegates argued strongly that “ownership” of personal data passed from the individual to the data gatherer/ holder; other delegates argued equally strongly that personal data remained the property of the individual and that data gatherers/ holders merely had limited rights of stewardship/ license to use, rather than ownership.
I strongly favour the “individual ownership, gatherer stewardship” model because I feel this should strengthen the accountability of the data-gatherers to act responsibly with the data entrusted to them and to protect the integrity of my personal data while in their care.
As long as the data gatherers continue to believe that they own our personal data, they are less likely to start looking after it properly and we will remain seriously at risk from their laxity and carelessness.
Do you care about who owns your personal data?
(here is the paper I contributed to the data leakage roundtable)
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Colin
This is one of the fundamental questions of the ‘Information Age’. Thank you for reminding us how distant we still seem to be from resolving it.
Along very similar lines, one of the longstanding tenets of Information Architecture is ’single source, copy managed for performance’. Which means we need to ask: who has the single source of someone’s personal data, and who has the copies? And if there are discrepancies between copies of the same data, which one is taken to be authoritative, and why?
This is not quite the same as your question of ownership, I know, but I think the two questions are worth considering together.
Chris
Colin I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s a personal bug bear of mine when personal data or identities are mismanaged by incompetent gatherers. So much so that I’m planning to launch a forum in the very near future named http://www.youridmatters.com that advises visitors on identity issues & gives them a place to discuss these issues.
I agree entirely with “individual ownership, gatherer stewardship”, gatherers need to be aware that I own my ID, not them, if I trust them & share my ID with them, they are responsible for keeping it safe and shouldn’t be surprised when I come after them if they break their promise & misuse my trust.
Good paper you submitted to the roundtable, thanks for sharing.