Like plumbing did for water, Australia’s ‘consumer data right’ could make your personal data safer and easier to share

Fri, 20 Oct 2023 04:25:55 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/like-plumbing-did-for-water-australias-consumer-data-right-could-make-your-personal-data-safer-and-easier-to-share-210969>

"Back in 2017, The Economist published a headline that became a meme. It said
data had become the new oil.

By that it meant that the world’s biggest and most profitable companies no
longer worked with oil, as they had throughout the 20th century, but with data.

By 2022, three of the world’s five most profitable companies specialised in
data – Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet. Only two of the five specialised in oil.

Oil did indeed shape our cities in the 20th century. It facilitated our
post-war urban sprawl and connected our cities by air and sea.

But before that, our cities were shaped by plumbing, making it more accurate to
say that data is the new water. Like water, controls over its flow will build
the next economy.

In a paper accepted for publication in the Australian Business Law Review, we
argue the new “consumer data right” will do for our data-driven economy of the
future what plumbing has done for our cities."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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