ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 develops the theme set in Chapter 1 and goes into greater detail on the key ingredients that constitute a data economy. It looks at the elements that animate the data economy and argues that data are now a “general purpose technology” in the likes of oil or electricity. This chapter shows that data has become complex and requires both technology and new skill sets to collect, curate, and analyse it. This complexity is being fuelled by the numbers of both users and producers of data, as well as the various channels through which data is captured. With such proliferation of data, there is an ever-growing need for protecting the public interest, and this is being addressed through new regulations and developments in privacy law. But this is also being addressed through technology and algorithms that can provide anonymity. There is also a clash of cultures in ensuring that the economic benefits of the data economy are not eroded by the demands of technology and the risks that are inherent in its use.
