Recent and intensifying interest in how companies govern user data has been met with an emphasis on users' rights with respect to their own data. However, a closer look at how data "ownership" works in practice reveals that ownership does not ensure that data is governed as owners (and subjects) intend. In this talk, I argue that data ownership is not determinative of the rights and obligations that the metaphor suggests. I draw on examples from three data sharing configurations in my dissertation fieldwork on access, accountability and proprietary systems in outsourced local government data programs: (1) ORCA card readers, (2) transit agencies providing first- and last-mile service to transit stations, and (3) a UW-based "data trust" for cross-sector data sharing. In each case, I explore what "work" data ownership does in practice, and find that it is not indicative of who can access data and for what purpose. 

Meg is a PhD Candidate in the UW Information School and a member of the Tech Policy Lab, Critical Platform Studies Group, and Data Lab. She primarily conducts ethnographic work on technology policy and smart cities programs.