Is "content" "data"? (Assume "content" is something the user generates and intentionally shares with one or more other users via a computer network. It could

Is "content" "data"? (Assume "content" is something the user generates and intentionally shares with one or more other users via a computer network. It could be a text message, a web page, a PDF, a photo, a video, whatever.) For example, when he says companies should avoid collecting identifiable data is he arguing against companies that collect user "content" (e.g., a cache of googleusercontent webpages, or a backup of photos stored in an Apple iCloud datacenter)? Or is he arguing against promoting user "accounts" where users identify themselves to companies to receieve the "benefits of signing in" or perhaps as a absolute requirement for access to "content" created by someone else via the company middleman? Much of the "data" that concerns privacy activists is what they might call "metadata". It is not the collection of "content" that alarms them, and no doubt the companies collecting it would remind us this content has been voluntarily shared. However... without the collection of "content" first by a middleman, there is no metadata for these companies to collect. We could have a debate about regulating the middlemen. We could try to define what their obligations should be toward users. A more interesting conversation IMO would be about how we can use technology to eliminate the middleman.