ABSTRACT
Data protection regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), all presume that the individual ‘owns’ her or his individual personally identifiable information (PII). However, the law of data ownership is far from settled. Is it the individual subject, or the data collector who actually ‘owns’ the data? Google, Amazon, facial recognition technologies such as FaceApp, Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), loyalty programs, social media platforms, ex-significant others, and governments all want to know where you are, what you’re doing, and who you’re doing it with. These entities collect petabytes of data, mostly without consent or compensation to the subjects.
If a woman walks a dog in the park, and is photographed by a social media fan, her steps are counted by her fitness watch, and her general description is noted by a student doing a research project, including the brand of clothing she was wearing, does she own all that data? If not, who does? Does it matter if data is being collected for art, news, profit or revenge? …
Black, Steve, Who Owns Your Data? (November 6, 2021). Indiana Law Review, volume 54, no 2, 2021.
First posted 2022-02-18 12:00:58
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