Say that you sign up for something online and it requires you to input some personal information (name, address, phone number, etc.). Who now owns those data? It is personal data about you, so do you own it? Does the website that collected the data from you own it? Some say that the owner is whoever owns the database within which the data is stored, while still others say no one owns personal data. This quandary is one of the most significant concerns when it comes to data protection in general.

Of course, the personal data examples given are fairly innocuous, but what about your financial, medical and credit information? What about consumer information (e.g. spending habits)? The privacy and security of much of these data is of paramount importance to most people, once again raising the question of ownership. For this Discussion, evaluate the ownership of personal data in regards to information such as medical, credit, personal, financial and consumer data.

To complete this Discussion:

Post: Create an initial post in which you take a position on the ownership of personal data. To begin, identify the potential owners of this information and analyse how and why they could be considered owner to someone’s personal data. Based on your analysis, evaluate who owns the data about a particular person in regards to medical, credit, personal, financial and consumer information.