Information Ownership and Materiality in an Age of Big Data Surveillance

Abstract Can private data “havens,” localized servers, and offline infrastructure empower secure and private user control over data? Contrasting Sealand's counter-surveillance policies with the NSA's Utah Data Center mass surveillance apparatus, the authors analyze how control of the physical location of data centers shapes the possibilities of data agency and ownership. They note that to whom data belongs has become regulated asymmetrically through technological capacity rather than through socially articulated norms or deliberative legal processes. They offer a number of policy approaches to enhance the democratic potential of information stewardship, but question whether any are sufficient to subvert the power of agencies such as the NSA.