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The scramble for data and the need for network self-determination

The scramble for data is unleashing a new form of colonialism: turning a quintessentially open internet into a series of closed, controllable cyber-spaces, where a few players have unprecedented influence.

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HRI

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Flickr/Martina Yach. CC-BY-2.0.Unless you lived in a cave over the past decade, you should have heard that “data is the new oil” or that data have become “the world’s most valuable resource.” However, rarely in our history has the emergence of new, extremely valuable, resources not resulted in power struggles leading to fundamental changes in political and social structures.