Who, exactly, owns our data is a topic of great concern worldwide.

The reason: defining ownership would have huge ramifications for what can be done with our data, who could gain access to it and how it could be monetized. In a legal sense, data ownership has typically referred to intellectual property (IP) or copyright data.

However, the rise of wearable smart devices and the internet of things boosted awareness about how large companies collect and monetize data related to our behavior, health statistics, and online activity.

You do not own the site analytics that these tech giants make available to you, and you don’t own any messages sent on a company email server or in your Slack channel. In a world where every device is smart and connected, surveillance is constant and ownership is unclear.