If Data Is the New Oil, Why Are There So Many Leaks?

Ever since British mathematician Clive Humby declared that “data is the new oil” in a 2006 speech at a conference for the Association of National Advertisers, it has become dogma in tech circles.

It’s a memorable metaphor; data is powerful and valuable. It fuels innovation, just as oil did in the industrial age. Just as oil powered the industrial revolution, data powers the digital economy.

But like most catchy analogies, this one tells only half the story.

Oil is also volatile. It spills, ignites, and pollutes. And when it leaks, it causes damage that’s hard to undo.

The uncomfortable truth is that viewing data solely as a high-value asset is not just incomplete; it’s dangerously naive. Every byte collected, every user profile built, every behavioural pattern stored represents both opportunity and risk.

If data really is the new oil, it’s time we asked: why are there so many data leaks?

And more importantly, how do we stop them?

Key takeaways

• The “data is oil” analogy is dangerously incomplete. Sure, data fuels innovation in the same way oil powered industry. And like oil, data is volatile. But unlike oil spills, data breaches can impact millions of lives globally in an instant and leave permanent digital scars.
• We’re in the midst of a digital data disaster. High-profile breaches are just the tip of the iceberg. The average cost of a data breach is now nearly US$5 million globally, and public trust is eroding as people feel they have less control over their data.
• Data hoarding amplifies risk. Most companies collect and retain far more personal data than necessary, treating it as an asset to monetise rather than a liability to protect.
• Four principles can prevent ‘data fires’: data minimisation, transparency, governance, and trust.
• Real innovation comes from respecting user rights, building for consent, and prioritising trust. Search engines like Timpi are leading a movement towards a transparent, equitable, and human-first internet, moving beyond surveillance capitalism.

The “Data Is the New Oil” Analogy (and Where It Falls Short)

 

In his statement, Clive Humby intended to highlight how powerful data can be when it is collected, analysed and processed into insights.

But almost 20 years on,  AI and data expert Nisha Talagala warned that “if we only see data as fuel, we miss how often it spills and who gets burned.”

Unsecured data behaves exactly like oil: explosive when mishandled, toxic when it leaks, and capable of causing damage that lasts for years.

But there are crucial differences between oil and data. For a start, data is highly vulnerable to theft, surveillance, and manipulation.

When oil spills, it affects a specific geographic area. When data leaks, it affects individual lives across the globe instantaneously.

Though undoubtedly difficult, oil spills can be largely contained and cleaned up. Data breaches create permanent digital footprints that can never truly be erased.

When data ‘spills’, it doesn’t just contaminate the environment — it destroys reputations, erodes trust, and fuels what researchers call ‘digital wildfires’ that spread misinformation and chaos.

What’s worse, most companies hoard personal data the same way corporations hoarded oil: to control, monetise, and dominate. They don’t stop to ask: should we be collecting this at all?

We’re Drowning in Data Leaks

You don’t need to be a cybersecurity expert to see the pattern. We’re witnessing a full-scale environmental disaster in the digital realm.

Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed the data of 87 million users, fundamentally altering how we think about social media privacy.

Equifax’s 2017 breach compromised the personal information of 147 million Americans — nearly half the country’s population!

The 2023 MOVEit breach showed how interconnected our digital supply chains have become. By exploiting a single vulnerability in the file transfer software, the CL0P ransomware group compromised more than 2,500 organisations worldwide, from government agencies to major corporations.

These headline-grabbing incidents represent just the tip of the iceberg.

According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach 2024 report, the average cost of a data breach has reached US$4.9 million globally, with healthcare and financial services bearing the heaviest burden.

Each breach is a warning sign that:

• Our data infrastructure isn’t secure.
• Surveillance capitalism is fragile by design.
• Consumers are losing trust.

According to Pew Research, 79% of Americans feel they have little or no control over the data companies collect about them. Meanwhile, 71% believe their data is less secure now than it was five years ago.

The system is broken, not because data has no value, but because we’ve treated it like crude oil: extract, refine, and sell.

The Principles That Prevent “Data Fires”

In her Forbes article, Nisha Talagala offers a better framework. To reduce risk and increase trust, we need to flip our assumptions and adopt four guiding principles:

1. Data minimisation

Data minimisation means collecting only what’s essential, when it’s essential, and disposing of it responsibly when you’re done.

It’s a principle enshrined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 5(1)(c):

“Personal data shall be adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed.”

2. Transparency

Users deserve to know what data is collected, how it’s stored, and who it’s shared with. This isn’t just about compliance; it’s about building trust through honest communication.

3. Governance

Ensure oversight and compliance with ethical data practices through active governance, documentation, and technical controls, such as clear data retention schedules and automated deletion processes.

Governance means implementing robust systems for data protection that build privacy and security into the foundation of digital infrastructure, not bolting it on as an afterthought.

4. Trust

Respect the user, not just the bottom line. People are becoming increasingly sophisticated about their digital rights and increasingly willing to abandon services that don’t respect them.

These principles are particularly crucial for search engines and advertising models. Traditional search platforms have built their business models on extensive data collection and user profiling.

But as surveillance capitalism researcher Shoshana Zuboff explains, this approach treats “private human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioral data”.

The result is a system that prioritises prediction and manipulation over user autonomy.

Instead, these principles should shape the tools we use every day — especially the tools we trust to access knowledge, like search engines.

Because if search is the gateway to the internet, then how it handles your data matters more than ever.

How Timpi Prevents Data Leaks at the Source

At Timpi, we don’t patch holes in the oil pipeline. We refuse to drill in the first place.

We’ve taken a fundamentally different approach to other search engines:

No Personal Data Collection

We don’t harvest, store, or sell your personal data because we don’t collect it in the first place. This isn’t just a policy choice — it’s built into our architecture. We can’t lose what we don’t have, and we can’t misuse what we don’t collect.

No surveillance ads

You won’t see behaviour-based ads. Timpi doesn’t monetise your clicks, searches, or attention span.

Fully decentralised infrastructure

Our web index is built on a decentralised network that can’t be controlled or censored by any single entity.

With the Timpi search engine, your searches are processed through our network of over 1,000 nodes across six continents. This distributed architecture means there’s no central honeypot for hackers to target, no single point of failure that could expose millions of users.

Anonymised by design

Our infrastructure is built with privacy as the default, not an afterthought. We don’t track, profile, or fingerprint users. Every query is processed anonymously and discarded after delivering results.

It’s a radical departure from the Big Tech norm, and that’s the point.

Where mainstream engines see users as data points, we see them as members of a movement: people who want a better way to search, discover, and connect without giving up their privacy.

A Better Future: From Extraction to Empowerment

It’s time to retire the “data is oil” analogy, or at the very least, rethink what it means. Real innovation doesn’t come from extraction, but from empowerment.

The future isn’t about hoarding data behind closed doors or building empires on behavioural surveillance. It’s about:

• Respecting user rights
• Designing for consent, not convenience
• Building trust, not exploiting it

At Timpi, we believe the internet can be transparent, equitable, and human-first. Our privacy-first search engine is just the beginning. We’re building a movement to reclaim the digital commons, one unbiased result at a time.