The concept extends beyond simple possession to encompass legal rights, responsibilities, and control mechanisms governing data as an asset. In smart cities and regions, ownership becomes particularly complex as various stakeholders—including municipalities, transportation providers, utility companies, businesses, and citizens—all generate valuable data through urban system interactions. The question of who owns data from e-scooters, public transit, or environmental sensors directly impacts how this information can be leveraged for public benefit, commercial interests, or individual rights.
Ownership in modern contexts must navigate competing interests across multiple dimensions. Personal data ownership centers on individuals' rights to control information about themselves. Organizational ownership focuses on proprietary information that entities collect, process, and utilize as business assets. Public ownership addresses information generated through government operations or publicly funded initiatives, with implications for transparency, citizen access, and democratic principles.
The regulatory environment continues evolving, with frameworks like GDPR establishing new paradigms strengthening individual rights while imposing obligations on data controllers and processors. These regulations recognize that traditional property rights concepts often inadequately address data's unique characteristics—it can be simultaneously used by multiple entities, easily replicated, and combined to create new value. Ownership becomes even more challenging when data from different sources is combined, raising questions about derivative rights and responsibilities.
Technical implementation approaches include metadata enrichment, adding identifying information such as confidentiality levels or ownership chains to datasets. Watermarking provides mechanisms for tracking provenance, while access control methods enable granular permissions reflecting complex ownership arrangements. Data contracts formalize terms for sharing and utilization, establishing clear parameters for ownership transfer or usage rights.
The ethical dimensions address fundamental questions about fairness, consent, and value distribution. Ensuring equitable access to benefits while protecting against exploitation requires thoughtful frameworks balancing innovation with accountability. For marginalized communities, ownership represents an opportunity to maintain agency over information and ensure it's used beneficially. In cross-border contexts, data sovereignty principles assert that data should be subject to laws where it originates.
As we navigate the data economy's complexities, establishing clear, ethical, and adaptable ownership frameworks will be essential, balancing innovation and value creation with individual rights, privacy protections, and equitable benefit distribution.
References to academic publications
Banterle, F. (2022). Data ownership in the data economy: A European perspective.
Cagnazzo, C. (2021). The thin border between individual and collective ethics: The downside of GDPR.
Eckhardt, J., & Kerber, W. (2024). Property rights theory and bundles of rights on IoT data.
Geiregat, S. (2022). The Data Act: Start of a new era for data ownership?
Graux, H. (2024). What is data ownership, and does it still matter under EU data law? An exploration of traditional concepts of data ownership, and of the expected impact of the Data Act.
Harris, D., Samuel, S., & Probert, E. (2018). GDPR confusion.
Kerber, W. (2024). EU Data Act: Will new user access and sharing rights on IoT data help competition and innovation?
Margoni, T., Ducuing, C., & Schirru, L. (2023). Data property, data governance and Common European Data Spaces.
Peloquin, D., DiMaio, M., Bierer, B., & Barnes, M. (2020). Disruptive and avoidable: GDPR challenges to secondary research uses of data.
Staunton, C., Slokenberga, S., & Mascalzoni, D. (2019). The GDPR and the research exemption: Considerations on the necessary safeguards for research biobanks.
Van de Vyvere, B., & Colpaert, P. (2022). Using ANPR data to create an anonymized linked open dataset on urban bustle.