Personal data as productive input in business activity and its legal protection

The concerns that have arisen regarding the use and exploitation that companies make of the data of their users and consumers are not new. For the most part, regulation has been developed from a constitutional perspective, aimed at protecting the fundamental rights of data originators. This situation seems to in no way ignore the importance that this data has when it comes to structuring a business model. For this reason, this work studies, on the one hand, the types and nature of data that can be collected and used for business purposes, and also its importance for entrepreneurs. On the other hand, the coherence of the legal treatment given to the data is analyzed based on its nature and use, as well as the aim is to establish whether personal data can be protected from private law as an input to business activity. To develop this work, a socio-legal research methodology was used with a mainly qualitative emphasis, specified in the analysis of legal, jurisprudential and doctrinal sources, as well as the preparation of field studies. From this research, dynamics of commercialization of personal data were identified, which make visible the need to assign a private ius legal treatment to the use and exploitation of these by the businessman. Likewise, the scope of protection of the current data protection regulations and the situations that escape said orbit were distinguished, being worthy of legal treatment in accordance with business reality. These findings made this circumstance visible and emphasized the need to observe the economic and social phenomena present in the different levels of society, to assess the need, effectiveness, and coherence of the current regulation.