James Felton Keith: Own Your Data

The Economist magazine and other major business periodicals have touted that "Data is the new oil," and that we should acknowledge it as such. The 5 largest companies of 2017 are all considered “data companies” and rely on the mining extraction processing and distribution of personal data to garner their market capitalization or pre-market valuation. Author and Engineer James Felton Keith will explore the two questions: If our personal data is a naturally occurring resource, just how valuable is it to the other +5 million companies in our economy? And, How much are people owed if they in fact own their data?

James Felton Keith is currently President of The Data Union. Affectionately known as JFK, he is an award winning engineer and serial-entrepreneur in advertising, finance, and insurance. JFK spends much of his time working on human rights policy in this post-information age. A human rights activist, he was the first Black member of the LGBT community to run for US Congress. His latest book is Personal Data: The People’s Asset Class.

This event is also part of the release of a new collection by Anthem Press. The Anthem Ethics of Personal Data Collection series publishes scholarly works at the intersection of data, ethics and digital technology in the 21st century. This series introduces the personal data movement by highlighting innovative research in public health, violence against women in public spaces, the energy sector, sexual violence in conflict, vocational training, insurance policy underwriting, individual control of enterprise data sharing, and data as labor. The series focuses primarily on the ethical concerns regarding personal data as a natural resource in the era of digital revolution.