Harari: How should private ownership of one’s own data be regulated?

“Private ownership of one’s own data may sound more attractive than all other options, but it is unclear what exactly that means. We have millennia of experience in regulating land ownership. We know how to erect a fence around a field, how to place a guard post at the gate, and how to control who is allowed in. In the last two centuries, we have made extreme progress in regulating industrial ownership – and so today I can own a piece of General Motors and a piece of Toyota by buying shares in these companies. But when it comes to regulating data ownership, we have virtually no experience, especially since it is a much more difficult task, because unlike land and machines, data is everywhere and nowhere at the same time, it can be on the move at the speed of light, and you can copy it as often as you want.”

– Yuval Noah Harari in his book “21 Lessons for the 21st Century”, page 121, C.H. Beck Verlag, 2018

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