Ownership rights over personal data - By GenerationLibre Think Tank

e-Citizens should be able to monetize its own personal data and, conversely, to pay the price for an internet service if they wish to protect their privacy. In a recent paper, the French liberal Think tank GenerationLibre studies how to establish a system of ownership on personal data, legally and technically.

Today, the GAFA and other platforms obtain their income by monetising aggregated data, through advertising in particular. While the value of personal data is expected to reach 8% of European GDP by 2020, platforms users get no direct payment for the raw materials they provide. As far as our data are concerned, we still live in the age of serfdom.

So if data represents the oil of the 21st century, is it not time to ask who owns the oilfields? Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, data ownership has become a burning issue.

Early April, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg claimed that opting out of Facebook’s data-driven advertisements would be "a paid product". In a recent op-ed, the former director of Cambridge Analytica called for a change "to recognise our fundamental human rights and property rights over our data".

In this new study, the French liberal Think tank GenerationLibre analyzes the entire range of socio-economic and ethical issues relating to personal data (I), explores how to introduce ownership of personal data into the law (II) and how technology can now be used to implement this new property right (III).

With a team of experts (lawyers, engineers, data scientists, economists), this paper analyses the American, French and European legal context and proposes a model based on a “blockchain” managing “smart contracts” which would allow everyone to gather and possibly commercialize their data. In order to assess the value of such a “data market”, this study will be completed by econometric modeling carried out by the French Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).

Only a proprietary approach will ensure real control of our data. Only the creation of a data market will be able to rebalance the power relationship between platforms and users.