We present an interview study of 34 participants in the US and Korea who described how they manage their personal data, from work files to family photos. Through their 'data narratives' - accounts of their data management practices, including device usage patterns and negotiations with system and brand ecosystems' we explore how individuals negotiate a complex, multi-service, and morally-charged sociotechnical landscape, balancing demands to share and to safeguard their data in appropriate ways against a shifting background of changing technologies, relationships, individuals, and corporations. We describe the guiding framework that people use to make decisions as a 'moral economy' of data management, contributing to our understanding of context-specific system choices.
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Vertesi et al. (2016) studied this question.