Is the personal data debate about value or ownership?

Photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash

The spat between Facebook and Apple regarding access to users’ data (see here for CNN’s summary) is long-overdue. When Clive Humby coined the phrase “data is the new oil” he didn’t mean it as a metaphor for robber barons hoarding vast swathes of it and making obscene fortunes while crushing competition. He, a British mathematician, merely meant that it needs to be refined and transformed in order…