Abstract

This article explores whether personal information can be owned and, if so, by whom. It begins with an overview of fluctuating judicial attitudes toward personal information ownership, highlighting the need for a thorough analysis of how the foundational tenets of ownership apply to personal information, particularly in digital form. The analysis clarifies that ownership is a concept rooted in property law, necessitating that questions of personal information ownership be answered within the ambit of property law, rather than informational privacy law. Building on this theoretical base, it becomes clear that while personal information in general does not meet the criteria for ownership, a specific digital instance of such information — that is, a computer file containing personal information — indeed meets the criteria and is therefore susceptible of ownership. When a new instance of information is generated, property law dictates that the first person to exercise control over it with the intent of ownership thereby becomes its owner. However, the data subject’s informational privacy rights impose limitations on the owner’s property rights. This interplay between informational privacy law and property law lays a crucial foundation for the legal governance of personal information in the digital age.