Understanding Data Valuation: Valuing Google’s Data Assets

Digital personal data are increasingly understood as a key asset in our digital economies. But how should we value such data? Numerous policymakers, regulators, and stakeholders are trying to work out how to manage the collection, use, and valuation of data in order to balance the advantages and disadvantages of its collection and use. The negative implications of data practices may include privacy loss, data breaches, or declining market competition, while social and economic benefits include improved service delivery, more efficient welfare systems, or better products. Increasingly, data are conceptualized as an asset. To understand the value of data as an asset means understanding how data are configured as an asset; data value does not reflect ownership and property rights per se, but rather diverse modes of access and use restrictions (usually delineated by opaque contractual agreements). Data are increasingly controlled by a few, large digital technology firms, especially so-called ‘Big Tech’ firms. In this paper, we use Google as a case study of how Big Tech firms configure and value digital data as an asset. We analyse how Google understands, frames, values, and monetizes the data they collect from users. We qualitatively analyse an extensive dataset of financial documentary materials produced by and about Google to identify the different modes of access and use restrictions that Google deploys to turn digital data into a valuable asset. We conclude that, despite being highly ambiguous, Google’s approach to data value focuses on monetizing users.