A Unified Theory of Data

How does the proliferation of data in our modern economy affect our legal system? Scholars that have addressed the question have nearly universally agreed that the dramatic increases in the amount of data available to companies, as well as the new uses to which that data is being put, raise fundamental problems for our regulatory structures. But just what those problems might be remains an area of deep disagreement. Some argue that the problem with data is that current uses lead to discriminatory results that harm minority groups. Some argue that the problem with data is that it impinges on the privacy interests of citizens. Still others argue that the problem with data is that its remarkable efficacy as a tool will lead to disruptions in labor markets. This Article will argue that the disagreements about data and its harms in modern society are the result of overly compartmentalized analyses of the nature of data itself. Data, after all, is a strikingly broad concept, one that spans everything from where you ate breakfast today to the genetic markers in your DNA to the returns on your 401(k) last year. By focusing narrowly on specific segments of the data industry, both scholars and policymakers have crafted a set of conflicting rules and recommendations that fail to address the core problem of data it-self. This Article aims to correct this gap. First, it provides a taxonomy of the core features of the data economy today and the various behaviors, both positive and negative, that these features make possible. Second, the Article categorizes the types of arguments made about costs and benefits of wider data usage. Finally, the Article argues that the only way to reconcile the varied and overlapping approaches to da-ta in our current regulatory system is to create a more unified law of data. This unified law of data would set forth harmonized and consistent rules for the gathering, storage, and use of data, and it would establish rules to incentivize beneficial data practices and sanction harmful ones. Ultimately, the Article concludes, governing data will require a more comprehensive approach than the limited and piece-meal efforts that have ruled to dat

Assessing the Adequacy of Diets: A Brief Commentary

Estimating the proportion of the population at risk of a dietary deficiency has long been a problem and different approaches have been advocated. The author presents a summary of the features of a method developed to estimate usual nutrient intake distributions. She also discusses the type of data needed to make inferences about the proportion of the population at risk of deficiencies, and argues that, under certain assumptions, it may be possible to address the problem with data already available

Developing a Georgia Policy Database: a Research Proposal

Scholars of state and local politics have long faced the problem of data availability. The crux of the problem is consistent and reliable measures that are amenable analysis over time or across states. The problem with data on the state or local level is one of information retrieval. Such tasks are especially laborious, and are necessarily focused on a small part of a much broader system of policy dynamics. The lack of a systematic framework for data collection or analysis makes projects that focus on a time span of longer than a few years or more than a handful of issues difficult to achieve without substantial resources

Compositional data analysis in archaeometry

We shall call an n × p data matrix fully-compositional if the rows sum to a constant, and sub-compositional if the variables are a subset of a fully-compositional data set1. Such data occur widely in archaeometry, where it is common to determine the chemical composition of ceramic, glass, metal or other artefacts using techniques such as neutron activation analysis (NAA), inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy (ICPS), X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) etc. Interest often centres on whether there are distinct chemical groups within the data and whether, for example, these can be associated with different origins or manufacturing technologiesGeologische Vereinigung; Universitat de Barcelona, Equip de Recerca Arqueomètrica; Institut d’Estadística de Catalunya; International Association for Mathematical Geology; Patronat de l’Escola Politècnica Superior de la Universitat de Girona; Fundació privada: Girona, Universitat i Futur