1.3 Who Collects Your Data and Why

Before you can protect your data, you need to understand who is collecting it and why. The answer is more complex than a single company or government — it is an ecosystem with many actors, each with their own incentives.

Governments

Governments collect data for a range of purposes: taxation, healthcare, census planning, law enforcement, and national security. In democratic countries, this collection is typically governed by statute and subject to judicial oversight (at least in principle). In authoritarian states, data collection by governments is often used to monitor dissent and control populations — as the Uyghur surveillance system in Xinjiang illustrates (Human Rights Watch, 2019).

Technology platforms

Social media companies, search engines, and app stores are among the largest collectors of personal data in history. Their business model is often built on it. When a platform offers a free service, you are typically paying with attention and data. Advertising-based platforms collect information about your interests, relationships, location, and behaviour to sell targeted ad space — an industry worth over $600 billion globally (Statista, 2023).

Facebook (Meta) reportedly processes more than 100 data points per user for advertising targeting (Bodle, 2022). Google tracks activity across its products and across millions of third-party websites through embedded trackers.

Data brokers

Data brokers are companies that collect, aggregate, and sell personal information — often without the knowledge of the people whose data they hold. They source data from public records, loyalty programs, app permissions, and purchases. Major brokers like Acxiom, Experian, and LexisNexis hold thousands of data points on hundreds of millions of people (Federal Trade Commission, 2014). Their customers include insurers, employers, political campaigns, and law enforcement.

Employers and institutions

Your employer likely has access to your work email, calendar, location (if you use a company phone), and possibly your keystrokes and screen activity. Educational institutions collect academic performance, behaviour records, and health information. These collectors often have legitimate legal bases — but that dös not mean collection is always proportionate.

The data economy's incentive structure

The common thread is incentive. Governments collect to govern and control. Platforms collect to monetize attention. Brokers collect to sell. Employers collect to manage productivity and risk. Data has been called "the new oil" — a raw material with enormous commercial and political value.

Your takeaway

You are the subject of data collection by many organisations simultaneously — most of which you will never interact with directly. Understanding who they are is the first step to understanding your rights against them. We will look at those rights in detail in Modules 5–9.