Personal information has been used throughout society for centuries, for a wide variety of personal, public and commercial purposes. However, over the last half-century, as the world has become digitized, especially due to the release and adoption of smartphones, connected devices, cloud services, ubiquitous internet and sensors, personal information has taken on a new and central role throughout the world’s societies and economies. According to the World Economic Forum, personal information has become a new asset class, the fuel of the world’s modern economies.

Public and private institutions throughout the world, as well as individuals themselves, have begun to collect, connect, manage, and commercialize personal information to achieve a myriad of social, personal, and economic objectives.

Personal information’s new role in society is creating significant social and commercial opportunities, and challenges, for individuals, public and private enterprises. According to the Boston Consulting Group, identity services, a subset of the personal information economy, may contribute as much as USD $1.1 Trillion to European economies by 2020 alone, with hundreds of millions of value flowing to individuals.

As personal information takes on a new role in our societies opportunities and challenges abound. It is critical that we all get up to speed on the role personal information plays in society and how it impacts us personally. However, if you’re a business executive it is a strategic imperative that you understand the flows and ins and outs of personal information throughout your business. If you do not, you’ll most certainly be left behind.

Understanding personal data and its impact on society is a gargantuan topic. But, as the saying goes, we all must start somewhere. To help you kick off the summer I’ve compiled the following viewing and reading list to help you think about personal information in new and different ways.

1. We Are The Future (Video, available on YouTube, 2 min; 2011), a marketing promotion the will help you understand how personal data is an economic asset that should be owned by the individual.
2. The Value of Your Personal Data (VPRO documentary, available on Amazon Prime, 49 min; 2013), a documentary that explains the evolution of personal data.
3. Who Owns the Future (Book, 2014), a treatise on the role personal information will play in society.
4. Fuel of the future, Data is giving rise to a new economy, How is it shaping up? (The Economist article; May 2017). An article on the intersection of personal data and artificial intelligence.
5. Tim Berners-Lee: I invented the web. Here are three things we need to change to save it, (Tim Berners-Lee, open letter; Mar. 2017). Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the Internet, writes an opinion piece on the state of the Internet.
6. The Circle (Book, fiction; 2014), a novel showing what may happen when one company, The Circle, takes control of all of our data via purported mission of transparency
7. The Zero Dollar Car, How the Revolution in Big Data will Change you Life (Book; 2017), image a world were we don’t buy our car, rather think about a world were we get paid to drive it since modern cars are simply sensors on wheels generating vast amounts of valuable data that should be able to sell.
8. Terms of Use (Book, fiction; 2016), a novel illustrating how social media can be used to influence a presidential (it was fiction when this was written).
9. The Coming Battle for Customer Information, (Hagel & Rayport; 1997). An article foretelling a new business model, the infomediary, for engaging people.
10. Terms & Conditions May Apply (Documentary; 2013) a documentary showing our we’ve slowing given up control over our rights and personal information.
11. Data Age 2025 (Report; 2017) a report outlining the explosion of data and what businesses should be aware of to prepare.
12. A Taxonomy of Privacy (Article; 2016) a review of all the harms that can be attributed to the misuses of our personal information.
13. Who owns your personal data? The incorporated woman (The Economist Article; 2014) one women sets out to monetize her assets - her mind, her body, our work product, and her personal data.
14. GDPR (Website; 2018), The GDPR is here, you need to intimately understand it as it affects you and your business.
15. …the list goes on.

The above list is just a start for you to get thinking about how personal data is reshaping our society. In addition to these videos, books, articles, and website there are myriad of others resources, including reports and studies, that you may and to draw inspiration from. Reach out to me if you’d like to compare notes.