Personal data is defined in law in many legal jurisdictions, most famously in the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):
Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person — one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to a name, an identification number, location data, or other identifier, or to factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity of that person.
Arguably, everything that meets the legal definition of personal data is interpersonal data in reality. Interpersonal data is a more natural, more human and more social conception, arising and changing between those people concerned.
This is an important observation in systems thinking and design. It is too common to apply the concept of property to interpersonal data for example. It is not property. It is more ethical and more valuable to think in terms of agency, trust, mind, and privacy.
LINKS
- Sheldrake, P. (2019). The interpersonal data at the heart of all human digital systems, including markets. RadicalxChange.
- Sheldrake, P. (2019). Interpersonal data, identity, and relationships — in pursuit of collective minds. SSI Meetup.