This article appeared in the June 2023 edition of Business Brief.
Bailiwick Data Protection Commissioner Emma Martins considers the rapid rise in the values of companies processing vast amounts of personal data – and the ethics of turning humans into commodities.
In ordinary language we think of wealth as referring to money. But we also use it to refer to other things that have value, at least from a human perspective.
The current digital and emerging technologies era has been referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The clue is, unsurprisingly, in the title. It is a period characterised by revolutionary, rapid developments in technology, industry and society.
Most recently, we have seen how fast paced developments have been, especially in artificial intelligence and advanced robotics.
This revolution is having, and will continue to have, very significant impacts, on all aspects of our lives. But for now let’s consider it solely in the context of wealth.
You have probably heard of data being referred to as ‘the new oil’ (a phrase coined by Clive Humby in 2006). It is true that the digital era feeds on vast amounts of data and every day the volumes of data being processed, and the scale of the growth of data we produce is staggering. Can you think of any business or organisation, large or small and across all sectors, that does not rely on data?
Remember, when we talk about personal ‘data’ this is not some ephemeral computing term – it means any information about an identifiable human being. It can be information about you that you share with others, or it can mean facts/opinions/inferred information about you that others create and use.
Increasingly we are seeing that those companies whose business models rely on the processing of vast amounts of personal data, such as Alphabet, Meta, Apple and Amazon, have become some of the richest in the world. So data is now more inextricably linked to economies and to economic success than ever before.
When we talk of economies and wealth, we necessarily also talk of questions of power, justice and equality. Because wealth goes hand in hand with power.
So, who is benefitting from this data-driven fourth industrial revolution? Perhaps more importantly we should be asking who is not benefitting.
Information about you is being created, collected, bought and sold every second of every day. Not only does that secure certain individuals and organisations a huge economic prize, it also builds a model of economic activity with extreme concentrations of power. That is rarely a good thing.
Further, whilst the analogy with oil is useful to highlight the economic potential of data, it is also flawed. Things that we see as valuable, such as oil, are almost always finite. Indeed, scarcity often serves to increase a commodity’s value. Personal data, on the other hand, is essentially infinite and reusable.
The potential for use and economic gain is enormous, but not – unlike oil – if it is hoarded and stored, only if it is collected, replicated, moved, shared, reused, reshared (you get the picture!). The abundance of data, and questions of its use and impact, is less about managing finite resources, and more about the potential benefits and harms for the whole of humanity.
We look back with shame and disgust to periods in our history when humans have exploited each other for profit and power. We need to ensure we are clear eyed about the part we all play in the history being written today.
Human beings are not commodities. Humanity is not something to be bartered. Wealth can and must be built on ethical values. The way the economy has leaned into issues of sustainability, equality, CSR, is proof of that.
Leaders in all sectors need to have, and demonstrate, a conscience. When such issues become an economic imperative as well as an ethical one, that’s when real change happens. We need to ensure the same for our data; that it is treated ethically not only because that is the right thing to do, but because it is what the market and economy expects and demands.
“True wealth is not measured in money or status or power. It is measured in the legacy we leave behind for those we love and those we inspire.” César Chávez
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