Is There a Need for Global Data Governance?

There are few universally agreed upon global norms and regulations that govern data. This is the case even though data now occupies a central position in economies everywhere and is widely considered the “new oil” of the digital age. What has emerged instead is a collection of fragmented and sometimes conflicting data governance regimes and regulations at national and regional levels. Disparate perspectives on data protection, which are based on differing conceptualisations of data (see Obendiek 2021), account for the lack of a universal approach. This article traces the development of three distinct varieties of macro-level big data governance, which have emerged in the EU (citizen-centred), US (corporation-centred), and China (state-centred), and that appear to be representative of the current range of data governance regimes that states can pursue. It then assesses the pitfalls of a fragmented and incoherent data governance regime at the global level, and in doing so, addresses the question, ‘is there a need for global data governance?’ Specific areas of data governance that may benefit from global agreement and universal application will be explored.