Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class

The World Economic Forum identifies personal data as a critical 21st-century resource, comparable to oil or capital, but notes that the current ecosystem is fragmented and inefficient. The report argues that unlocking the socioeconomic value of this data requires a shift toward 'end user-centricity,' based on transparency, trust, control, and value distribution. It highlights the role of 'trust frameworks' and interoperable standards in reducing fraud and identity theft while enabling secure data exchange. The document concludes with five imperatives for collective action: innovating around trust, defining global principles, strengthening regulator-private sector dialogue, focusing on open standards, and sharing knowledge.

• Personal data is categorized into three types: volunteered data (explicitly shared), observed data (captured via actions), and inferred data (derived from analysis of volunteered or observed information).
• The current personal data ecosystem is characterized as fragmented and inefficient, where risks and liabilities often outweigh economic returns and existing regulations are outdated.
• A balanced personal data ecosystem requires 'end user-centricity,' which is defined by four key principles: transparency, trust, control, and value.
• The report identifies significant risks if the ecosystem becomes imbalanced: private sector dominance could lead to a "race to the bottom" in data capture, public sector dominance could stifle innovation through over-regulation, and end-user imbalance could lead to underfunded non-commercial alternatives.
• Trust frameworks, such as the Open Identity Trust Framework (OITF), are proposed to manage online identities at scale, reducing the need for multiple passwords and mitigating identity theft and fraud.
• Interoperability is essential for global scale and is divided into three types: technical (interface standards), semantic (shared understanding of messages), and legal (common business policies and frameworks).
• Governments can act as enablers of the ecosystem through regulatory crafting, participating in social goal experiments (such as the US 'Blue Button' health data initiative), and using purchasing power to influence commercial solutions.
• The report projects a massive increase in digital data volume, estimating that by 2020, the global volume of digital data will increase more than 40-fold compared to 2009.

APA

World Economic Forum (2011). Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ITTC_PersonalDataNewAsset_Report_2011.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class. 2011. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ITTC_PersonalDataNewAsset_Report_2011.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class |date=January 2011 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ITTC_PersonalDataNewAsset_Report_2011.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2011personal, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2011}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ITTC_PersonalDataNewAsset_Report_2011.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }