“The literal legal interpretation of a director’s duties to the corporation views the corporation as a person, subject to public laws that govern the relationship between individuals and society. Governments therefore grant every corporation a legal license to operate by way of a corporate charter. By contrast, the inferred legal interpretation that directors owe duties to shareholders (because shareholders bear the greatest risk due to their residual claim of corporate profits) views corporations as private property. This view subjects corporations to private law that governs relationships between individuals, which include contract law and property law. If corporations are not property but legal persons (Bakan, 2004), ownership of a person, even a legal person, could be considered slavery and therefore illegal. Ironically, corporations won the right to be legal persons by successfully claiming rights to the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was enacted to end slavery (Nicholls, 2005).”

I wonder to what extent a “corporation” might be an appropriate analogy for “personal information”. Should personal information be treated as a distinct legal person (persona), similar to a corporation, and should it therefor be subject to public law, rather than property law? If so, would it be appropriate to have a governance structure (personal information governance) to direct the use of personal information (or personas)?