Katharina Pistor

The business with human data: improving governance in the information age

If the sole purpose of everything is to be monetized and sold for profit, human data may be deemed the “new oil”. Yet, human data offers far greater opportunities and its reduction to a commodity creates substantial costs. The business with data has not created free markets, but conglomerates with excessive power. Data producers are denied a voice and the economic benefits to what they produce, and society is deprived of social welfare enhancing opportunities. Human data deserves a better governance structure that can be crafted from known organisational forms enhanced by modern technology.