Big data: A Collective Resource in a Connected World

Pierre Trudel, "Big data: A Collective Resource in a Connected World" in Montigny, E. et C. Biancalana (Eds) Artificial Democracy, Vancouver, UBC Press, 2025, 43-66.

All connected objects produce data. Current privacy laws focus on the relationship between information and the individual. They are not designed to ensure that data generated by an entire population in the connected world is used responsibly. The information obtained through the “free and informed consent” of individuals is nevertheless used to generate value in the advertising market, targeted marketing and soon, in the prediction supported by artificial intelligence of our movements and our health condition. 

This chapter argues that the underlying approaches of data protection laws fail to cope with the challenges posed by the advent of a context in which data produced by collectivities constitute a factor of wealth production. Hence the need to rethink the status of big data to recognize that they are a resource that emanates from the community and which as such should be treated as a collective resource. Recognition of the collective status of big data as a resource provides a rationale for legislatives measures intended to protect or restore data sovereignty in democratic states.

6 Conclusion

Data produced by individuals and the compilation of those data to calculate community trends are fundamental raw materials for the network-based functioning that characterizes our era. The fact that many activities function in networks makes it more complicated for States to control what is going on within their borders. In this way, an increasing amount of data escapes any form of democratic control. The conditions produced by the pre-eminence of network-based environments force us to ask questions about the digital sovereignty of States, organizations and individuals, or forms of supranational sovereignty. Sovereignty must now be exercised in spaces that are increasingly virtual. It is important that States give themselves the means to ensure that the choices and rules that prevail are the ones that are consistent with their values. They must act alone but at the same time innovate by giving themselves the means to act in concert with other States.

However, the establishment of relevant intervention with regard to processes that operate on the commodification of big data requires breaking down certain epistemological barriers that affect analyses concerning data. Seeing data concerning individuals as a resource that concerns the individual alone, who would be “free” to consent to their use, is unrealistic when data are aggregated. Nonetheless, the mere fact that big data are designated as a collective resource does not entail that public authorities are justified in accessing information on individuals. We need to insist on the distinctions between the designation of a resource as being collective and a State right to access data when those data make it possible to identify individuals.

Individuals’ personal information must be protected, but aggregated data, which are now used to create value, are a resource that concerns both the individuals and the communities living within national borders. State sovereignty is threatened because the data circulating on networks are generally unimpeded by territorial boundaries. This is why it is important to recognize the sovereignty stakes raised by data. The advent of the connected world forces us to re-examine the processes by which State sovereignty is expressed and State laws are applied. In a networked world, technical configurations and the way objects are connected lead to default regulation of behavior. Regulation by default i.e. the requirements imposed by the technical configurations installed in the objects must be scrutinized in the framework of open processes designed to establish mechanisms able to guarantee accountability.

Ce contenu a été mis à jour le 07/03/2025 à 3:24 PM.