Is Personal Data Worth More Than Oil?
You open an app to check the weather. You allow it to access your location, perhaps without giving it much thought. A minute later, you know whether to take an umbrella; elsewhere, someone has learned where you are. It’s a convenient exchange, until you wonder what happens to that information after you close the app.
For years, people have called data the new oil. The phrase works because it makes one thing clear: behind seemingly free services lies a resource that can generate money. But it also lumps together very different things. A photograph, a purchase history and a phone’s location do not have the same value or carry the same risks.
The question, then, is not how much one piece of data costs. It is who can collect many pieces, connect them and use them to make decisions. That is where the comparison gets interesting. It is also where it starts to fall apart.
The Value Lies in the Connections
Knowing that you bought a pair of shoes reveals little. Knowing which styles you searched for, how long you spent comparing them, where you live and when you tend to shop makes it easier to predict what you might buy next. No single detail tells the whole story.
For a business, that insight can mean more relevant advertising, better products or earlier detection of fraud. Raw data alone is not enough, though. You need systems to analyse it and a specific question to answer. A vast but inaccurate database may be worth less than a small set of current, relevant information.
Where the Oil Comparison Breaks Down
A barrel of oil is used up. Information can be copied, combined with other information and used again. Its meaning also changes over time: yesterday’s location may be irrelevant to suggesting a restaurant today, yet useful to someone trying to reconstruct your movements.
Above all, personal data is about people. According to the European Data Protection Board, it can include browsing history, purchases and location. Calling it a “resource” can make it easy to forget that excessive collection or a data breach may have consequences for the people whose everyday lives produced that information.
What Is Trust Worth?
For businesses, gathering information without a clear purpose also increases the amount they must protect. An app that asks for your location only when it needs it is easier to understand than one that demands access the moment you open it, without explaining why.
European rules require, among other things, defined purposes, collection of only the data needed and appropriate security measures. These are constraints, certainly, but they help frame the right question: does this information actually improve the service, or is it being kept in case it proves useful someday?
More Than Oil? It Depends Who Pays the Price
For some companies, understanding people’s behaviour and needs can create more value than a raw material. But there is no universal price for “personal data”. Its value depends on the context, the quality of the information and how it is used.
The crucial difference is that an oilfield cannot ask questions. A person can. If we want to talk seriously about the value of data, the answer must also account for people’s ability to know what is happening, make a choice and say no.
