What consent means once data has been transformed into a synthetic form its original source can no longer recognise.
Selling
Ourselves.
POPIA and synthetic data markets: consent, value and responsibility when data changes form. Published on SSRN by Company Brain founder Kai Swarts.
THREE THEMESConsent.
Consent.
Value. Responsibility.
Who captures the value created when data changes form, and what that implies for the person it originated from.
Who remains accountable when data changes form—the question this research asks, and the same question Company Brain answers operationally for AI agents: is the knowledge behind this answer still tied to an accountable source.
Provenance was the question
before it was a feature.
Company Brain's product argument—permission is not truth, every claim needs a traceable source and an accountable owner—extends the same reasoning this research applies to data markets into the narrower, operational problem of AI agent knowledge.
See the product argument →