Governance of Fair Data Usage and Value Distribution: From a Comparative Perspective

Enter The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Professor Shoshana Zuboff, companies feature the collection of vast amounts of personal data, accumulating substantial private power. This power enables companies to extract “behavioral surplus” from data without offering corresponding benefits to users or considering social benefits. Such data concentration raises concerns about individual privacy loss, economic exploitation, structural inequality and the erosion of democratic values. In response, the European Union emphasizes the fair distribution of the data value by granting users rights over data processing and usage, the United States prioritizes a market-based data transaction approach, while China establishes new property rights. However, existing legal frameworks inadequately address the behavioral issues affecting consumers in data usage and fail to mitigate market failures associated with informational asymmetry. These frameworks overlook the data relations that exacerbate social inequality. Against this backdrop, this study conducts a comparative critical analysis of data privacy laws in the European Union, the United States, and China. It examines the underlying reasons for their differing principles. As data should be harnessed for the benefit of both individuals and society adhering to basic notions of equality, this paper also tries to explores a more equitable path for data governance and value distribution.