Clipped from: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/no-data-isnt-the-new-oil-data-protection-bill-needs-to-realise-that-8957684/
Excessive focus on economic value presumes that all data can be generated and harvested, and valued only economically. This betrays the fact that data is embodied
The excessive focus on the economic value and use of data reinforces the idea that data is a commodity. It doesn’t question the need for certain kinds of data or the mandate to resist datafication of our personal and private lives.
Data is the snake oil that keeps the mysticism of computational networks as robust decision-making bodies intact. Our faith in the idea that predictive digital technologies are reliable is sustained by the constant conversation around data. When a digital deployment does not work, or at least does not work as intended, we hear two pre-wired responses from the intermediaries and stakeholders who support the system: That we need more data to create better outputs and that we need better data to generate more reliable results.
This quest for more data and better data naturalises three basic principles. First, that data is a neutral thing, which is a mere description of what is happening. Second, that data is imminently transactional, without any repercussions on the events and people that it describes. Third, that data is a commodity and hence can be traded off in exchange for services, benefits and conveniences. These three principles offer digital data as digital objects — born digitally and only tenuously connected to the experiences and lives of people it seeks to describe.
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