TRADE IN DATA: DIFFERENT APPROACHES, ONE REALITY

The development of the digital economy and new technologies raises the question whether it is possible to consider personal data as a new economic asset. Provides an overview of the positions on this issue in foreign and domestic scholarships. Opinions range from recognition of trade in public values unacceptable to statements concerning a shadow data market. Based on a hypothetical assumption of data tradability, the authors examine approaches to the definition of personal data as an object of civil rights. The research paper demonstrates that possible obstacles to the introduction of economic data circulation can emerge from legislative formulations as well as from general legal approach to the regime of personal data defense. The research paper examines experience of different countries in providing legal conditions for the legitimate commercial processing the collected data. The article illustrates reasons why trade in personal data is not a threat to human information rights and explains how the problem of privacy defense can be resolved. The nascent experience of foreign countries suggests that profiting from data commerce requires to remove regulatory barriers, and at the same time to publicly accompany market processes, since the State remains the main guarantor of the rights of its citizens. Taking into account the current development of the Russian digital economy and the approach to understanding personal data as a social value, the authors present their own recommendations for the Russian legislator on realization of the data commercialization project. The article is prepared within the research work on the public order of the RANEPA.