Introduction

If the writings of contemporary pundits are correct, we live not only in an age of information, but also in an age of data. In literature aimed at the corporate business market, much of the rhetoric that has come to surround concepts of information is often transferred to a parallel discourse about data. We can read, for example, of the importance of efficient enterprise data management, of data governance frameworks and of a need to recognise data as a ‘valuable and manageable organizational asset’ (Bhansali, 2014, 9–10). In the 2010s, organizations have increasingly sought to take advantage of new data analytic techniques to improve decision-making or business activities; many now aim to ‘monetise’ data, exploiting their corporate data in creative ways to become more competitive and profitable (Cohen and Kotorov, 2016; Marr, 2017).

Interest in data analysis and exploitation is not confined to commercial enterprises. Governments, political parties, police forces, scientists and health care providers are all now seeking to analyse digital data to enhance their operations. Data science and data administration, although newly emerging as professions, are rapidly expanding areas of employment in many countries, and the worlds of data analysis and curation have become major fields of research. As Jonathan Furner observed:

When European records professionals consider data, they often think of data protection law, whose connections to record-keeping are well established. Records retention, security and privacy must increasingly be addressed in the context of European regulations concerned with trans-border data flows (Montaña, 2016; Sautter, 2011, 25–6). More recently, discussions about data have extended to big data (exponentially growing volumes of analysable data arising from the proliferation of computers across business, government and the wider community), open data (proactive release of public sector data for sharing, redistribution and creative reuse) and other flavours of data that may also appear to be connected with records.