Preamble

We put forth the following rights with the aim of ensuring property protection and social well-being in the digital world. Property in the digital world is the data - or digital exhaust - one produces from using these technologies. The right to said property extends from existing frameworks of property rights. There are numerous difficulties associated with generating sustainable & effective digital property rights. Questions surrounding privacy, access to knowledge, etc. shape the way we think about property rights. With the following rights, we do not aim to answer these questions/resolve these debates. Rather, we aspire for these rights to serve as a blueprint for property protection in the digital world, with the hope that these rights are shaped and contextualized according to the situations within which they must be exercised.

Rights

• The right to data as a property.
1. Right to possession of one's data.
1. Individuals shall have the right to an expiration date for their data when held by a third party.
2. Individuals shall have the right to protection of their data insofar as this protection does not 1) prevent others from enjoying scientific or cultural progress or 2) actively harm other members of society.
2. Right to manage one's data.
1. Individuals shall have the right to know how one's data will be used.
2. Individuals' data shall be utilized by third-parties only with the aim of benefiting either the individual or society writ large. Data shall not be utilized for exploitation.
3. Right to income of one's data.
1. Individuals shall have the right to not have their data utilized for third-party monetary value extraction. In effect, individuals shall have the right to non-discrimination on any potential vector of discrimination arising from their data.
2. In cases where monetary value extraction does occur, however, individuals shall have the right to capture all profit arising from third-party utilization of their data.
4. Right to security of one's data.
1. Individuals shall have the right to effective data security based on accountable data processing, user control, and legal frameworks.
2. Individuals shall have the right to a clean data environment.

For Further Consideration

Based on these rights, we encourage corporations to recognize the importance of having collective ownership over data. Surveillance Capitalism is a relatively recent phenomenon that has largely operated without regulation. Just because a few dominant surveillance capitalists have controlled the digital landscape does not mean they can continue to reap the benefits of our digital participation and existence. Existing initiatives such as the Data Dividend can lay the groundwork for thinking about data as having collective value and beneficial when reinvested back into society. After all, the global data economy cannot exist without the data-generating public.