Research On Data Ownership In The Context Of Big Data

Advances of emerging technologies,such as artificial intelligence,blockchain,and cloud computing,have led to the collection,automatic processing and personalized application of mass data.As the mankind embarks on the big data era,the digital economy and data industries have been thriving.On the other hand,disputes over data use have been on the increase.Either the data dispute between S.F.Express and Cainiao or the data dispute between Tencent and Huawei or the charge of Sina against Momo,the charge of Dianping.com against Baidu.com,or the charge of Taobao.com against Meijing for unfair competition–the focus of all the above disputes is on the struggle for data.Currently,data ownership has been a linchpin to data resource allocation.Not only can it affected the power distribution of data resources,but it can affect the sustainable development of the big data industries and digital economy.Moreover,it has posed a threat to the national cybersecurity.Development of data industries has given rise to a series of stakeholders,including data subjects,data controllers,data collectors and users,data processors,data intermediaries and buyers,etc.Whether the foresaid data subjects have the legitimate rights and interests of the big data formed on the basis of individual data,what about the content of their rights and interests,and how their data rights and interests should be divided have become issues of top concern to the development of big data industries.Still being in the initial development stage of big data industries,China has not yet provided clear legislation on the data ownership.When any dispute arises from the data ownership,it is usually settled down by the interpretation of relevant laws.According to Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China,though data is protected as an important right and interest,no responses have been made to issues concerning the data ownership.Following the thriving of big data trading,the ambiguity of the data ownership will deepen the contradiction thus incurred,and exert a greater impact on the development of big data industries.Data resources have been widely acknowledged as“new petroleum”for the data economic era.Countries all over the world have been subsequently drawing up their data economic development strategy.China has already listed data as one of the market elements together with land,labor force,capital,technology,etc.In November 2020,the Chinese government promulgated the“14^thFive-Year Plan”and“Long-range Objectives Through the Year 2035”,which specify the necessity of“establishing data resource ownership and promoting development and utilization of data resources”.Therefore,data ownership has been an issue crying for further research in China.Since to define data and other relevant concepts is a prerequisite for the identification of the data ownership,and China’s legislation has not yet been unified,first clarifies relevant concepts of data,information,big data,etc.,and analyzes relevant theories of data ownership affirmation.Following that,the status of data ownership affirmation in China,the existing dilemmas and causes are examined.At last,countermeasures for China’s data ownership allocation have been proposed from the perspective of basic ideas and specific countermeasures.Results show that China has been faced with the following dilemmas in data ownership affirmation,namely inadequate legislation,unclear positioning of legislation,a large number of data subjects,and complexity of data application scenarios.Causes behind these dilemmas are also investigated,including lack of a full understanding of the importance of data ownership affirmation,dispute over the nature of data laws,development of big data trading and new technologies,etc.Concerning the basic thinking to address the above dilemmas,data ownership affirmation should first stick to the balance of personal rights and development of the data industry.Second,big data application scenarios should be combined to pinpoint a flexible data ownership affirmation plan.As to the specific countermeasures to address the above dilemmas,it is suggested that the legal attribute of data rights should be clarified,data ownership affirmation based on data types and scenarios flexibly,and algorithms introduced for reverse ownership affirmation,etc.