Jack Smith writes for Lancaster University’s Scan on the state of our private information:

A recent news story suggested that Bruce Willis, the actor, has sued Apple to allow him to pass his digital music collection on to his son after he passes away, much like an older generation might have left shelves full of 7” records.

Why might he need to resort to legal action? As Dan Jones of the Evening Standard points out, Apple’s terms and conditions state that once a user purchases a song from the iTunes Music Store, they only lease it as opposed to owning it outright.

While it has since emerged that the Bruce Willis section of the story might be untrue, the legal status of your iTunes purchases are not. The thought raises some very interesting questions about data and ownership of it.

Let’s make no mistake. Data is now both a commodity and an essential part of daily life – whether this is your photos, your music, or your documents stored on Dropbox. Advertisers are desperate to get hold of your data to enable them to place targeted adverts in front of you. Terms and conditions, which the vast majority of us all accept without giving a second thought when we sign up to a website or download an app, generally surrender our rights to our data…

Full story here.