Why Your Data is not Your Property (and Why You Still End Up Paying With It)?

Authors: Onntje Hinrichs

ABSTRACT

This essay explores three interrelated topics that reveal tensions in the European approach towards the regulation of the data economy: (i) data as property (ii) data and fundamental rights, and (iii) data as payment. By retracing how scholars and policy makers have attempted to find an appropriate regulatory framework for the data economy, this essay shows that up to this day, contradictions in the EU’s approach to the data economy persist and become evident in our everyday lives online. Despite not owning our data, we pay for digital content and services with it. This essay clarifies this paradox and its role in ongoing legal battles between the large corporations, civil society and the EU.  

Keywords: Data Protection – Data Economy – Data Property – Consumer Protection – Pay-Or-Consent

FULL TEXT: