Keynote speakers > María Luz Rodríguez

Property rights and monetisation of the personal data of platform workers

Abstract: Thousands of workers around the world are subject to algorithmic management of their work, especially on digital platforms. Companies capture workers' personal data and feed it into algorithms that organise work. This operation allows them to be more efficient in the market, since the information extracted from workers' personal data allows them to adjust the supply and demand of goods and services in real time. This translates into huge corporate profits, which do not in any way benefit the workers who ‘produced’ the data that allows companies to be more efficient and make greater profits. In view of the above, some authors have long wondered whether it would be possible to recognise workers' property rights over their personal data, so that they can obtain financial compensation for the “alienation” of their personal data to companies. As Viljoen has pointed out, the recognition of this right ‘responds to an important claim of injustice levied against the digital economy: that individuals play a role in generating a materially valuable resource from which they see no value [as well as] to frustration over the wealth amassed by companies that harvest data for which they pay nothing’ (Viljoen 2021, 621). However, there are many technical and, above all, ethical objections to this idea. The most relevant of these is that the recognition of a property right legitimises the capture and economic exploitation of data by companies, without the financial compensation received for the ‘transfer’ of personal data being able to repair the damage this causes to the autonomy and well-being of individuals (Bietti 2019; Viljoen 2021; Cofone 2021). The paper aims to address whether it is possible to reconcile both views of property rights over personal data. To this end, it proposes: 1) to investigate whether, as some authors do, it is possible to differentiate between personal data and data derived from personal conduct in order to recognise a property right exclusively over the latter; 2) explore the possibilities of recognising intellectual property rights of workers over their personal data; 3) identify whether, on the basis of the recognition of intellectual property rights, it is feasible for workers to participate to some extent in the profits of companies; and 4) investigate whether financial compensation, rather than being negotiated individually by each worker, can be negotiated by organisations representing the interests of workers.