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Your data or your life

Singapore's data protection regime is eight years old. It's time to grow up.

While the digital transformation has been overwhelmingly positive, there is also a darker side, with "surveillance capitalism" funded by exploiting our data, says the author. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
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Data, in particular personal data, is often described as the "new oil" powering the information economy. It's an attractive metaphor - evoking transformations under way in a fourth industrial revolution, heralding a world of artificial intelligence and limitless possibilities.

Unfortunately, that metaphor is wrong in almost every way.

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