Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian economist whose work centred on the informal economy and property rights, has much to contribute to the dialogue raging in the so-called developed world about privacy and data.

Mr de Soto showed how enabling individuals to own property legally would drive economic prosperity. Many credit him with the surge of wealth creation happening in some parts of Latin America.

Meanwhile, US technology platform companies and the European Union are engaged in an arms race around privacy. The issue is not whether my data are private. We lost that battle a long time ago. As Scott McNealy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems said: “You have zero privacy?.?.?.?get over it.” The issue is over who owns my data and to whom the value accrues.