This is potentially the side of the coin that gives the transactional political theory its legs; but as above, from a user perspective, the idea of data being transacted doesn’t really stack up.
Furthermore, if – for example – users decide south africa rcs data there is an inequity between data (a free service) and what platforms provide them with (a free service, and targeted advertising) and demand more, this would in turn demand a change in how value flows between users, platforms and third-parties.
In other words, if we change the political theory of data, we may also have to depart from the laissez faire model of data ownership. In my next blog post for this series, then, I will consider alternative political theories of data and turn my attention to two emerging models of data ownership: data trusts, and data commons.