What If Companies Don’t Own All That Data They’re Collecting?

Big data and the “internet of things” — in which everyday objects can send and receive data — promise revolutionary change to management and society. But their success rests on an assumption: that all the data being generated by internet companies and devices scattered across the planet belongs to the organizations collecting it. What if it doesn’t?

Alex “Sandy” Pentland, the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, suggests that companies don’t own the data, and that without rules defining who does, consumers will revolt, regulators will swoop down, and the internet of things will fail to reach its potential. To avoid this, Pentland has proposed a set of principles and practices to define the ownership of data and control its flow. He calls it the New Deal on Data. It’s no less ambitious than it sounds. In the November issues of HBR, Pentland discusses how the New Deal is being received and how it’s already working in a little town in the Italian Alps.

Pentland also spoke with me about these issues in a recent Google Hangout. If you missed it, you can view a recording of our conversation below: