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Data Value and Rights: The New Approach to Data Governance

Writer's picture: Friday InitiativesFriday Initiatives



The accessibility and popularisation of AI in business has only accelerated the need for strong data governance. But not in the traditional way, it calls for a total redesign.  AI implementation forces organisations to acknowledge the reality of data being - “rubbish in equals rubbish out”. 


As such successful AI implementation requires organisations to understand their data better than ever before to obtain the benefits such as automation, efficiency, improved decision-making, and personalised customer experiences. 

But what is it about data that organisations need to understand? Well, it is the rights that underpin and the value derived from data that now becomes crucial. 


Data value is the worth derived from data based on its use, relevance and potential for driving insights, decisions and innovation. Not all data is created equal; some data has higher intrinsic value depending on how it can be leveraged. 


Data rights, on the other hand, are the ethical and legal obligations and frameworks underpinning data, think privacy, consent, ownership, confidentiality and cyber-security. Understanding rights is crucial to setting policies around who can and should access, use, and share data.



Traditional Data Governance Approach

Understanding and mapping the relationship between data value and data rights for all your data is crucial but in practice it can take traditional technologies and approaches years to tag, catalogue and categorise your data, making this approach to governance almost impossible. 

This is because traditional data governance technologies and approaches often focus heavily on:

  • emphasising strict roles and attributes based access controls to minimise risk; 

  • 100% compliance with regulations without considering the dynamic nature of data value, business context and legal strategy; 

  • applying static models and frameworks, such as NIST and ISO, that may not adapt to the evolving landscape of data usage and rights; and 

  • manually enforced data retention policy controls, or high-level system-based time rules. 



The New Approach

Reframing the way you look at data to value and rights unlocks your ability to align your data strategy, controls and communications by finding a balance between leveraging data for insights and value and respecting or protecting rights. It also builds data trust between your organisation and users, leading to better data sharing and collaboration, which in turn enhances the overall value derived from data.


By taking a dual focus on data value and data rights, like that used by Friday Initiatives, it is possible:


  • to map your data, processes, systems and capabilities in less than 3-months, because we no longer need you to tag, catalogue and categorise each individual data asset, rather we rely on explainable AI-solutions to understand how data is actually used;    

  • define automated policy rules focusing on how the data can be used, rather than the system or nature of the data meaning we can be more flexible in how you strategically apply standard frameworks and compliance requirements 

  • dynamically adapting automated policy rules to changing business needs, requirements and data landscapes

  • Enforcing automated policy rules by reference to data use, enabling data to be deleted when it no longer serves its purpose; 

  • prioritise how data can be used for strategic advantage while simultaneously ensuring rights are protected. 


By understanding data value and data rights as interconnected, organisations can establish more effective and responsible data governance that aligns with modern data challenges.

This new approach leverages AI to dynamically balance the value derived from data with the rights and protections needed, making governance faster, more flexible, and aligned with modern data needs.

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