Personal data collection creates a tension between protecting individual privacy and maximizing
data utility. Utility should be seen as more important because it enables innovation, better services, and
public benefits that would not exist without large-scale data use. Personalized services rely on user data to
tailor recommendations, navigation, and health tools, making everyday life more efficient and convenient.
In health care, data from electronic health records and large medical datasets allow more accurate
diagnoses, better treatments, and faster research on new therapies. On a societal level, governments,
researchers, and organizations need personal data to improve public health, transportation, energy
efficiency, and social policy.
For example, mobility and contact-tracing data were crucial in understanding and slowing the
spread of COVID-19. Economically, data drives the development of AI and digital services, which in turn
support jobs and growth. While privacy risks are real, many can be reduced through safeguards like
encryption, anonymization, strict access controls, and clear regulations. If privacy is treated as more
important than utility in all cases, society would lose medical advances, life-saving research, and useful
technologies. A balanced approach that maintains strong privacy protections while still prioritizing
high-value uses of data shows that, overall, utility is more important than privacy when considering
personal data collection. Sources that support this argument include: the World Economic Forum’s
“Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class,”; reports from the European Centre for Disease
Prevention and Control on the role of mobility and contact data in managing COVID-19; and publications
from the U.S. National Academy of Medicine on how electronic health records and data sharing improve
health care quality and research.
A balanced approach that maintains strong privacy protections while still prioritizing high-value
uses of data shows that, overall, utility is more important than privacy when considering personal data
collection. Sources that support this argument include: the World Economic Forum’s “Personal Data: The
Emergence of a New Asset Class,”; reports from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
on the role of mobility and contact data in managing COVID-19; and publications from the U.S. National
