Yes "data is the new oil" is a clumsy buzzwordy metaphor. But I don't see how the author's hypothetical refutes this. He claims that because data is only useful

Yes "data is the new oil" is a clumsy buzzwordy metaphor. But I don't see how the author's hypothetical refutes this. He claims that because data is only useful to it's generator. But this doesn't hold water to me, both oil and data are useless to the end consumer until they are refined. It just so happens that the data "miners" and "refiners" in our day are vertically integrated (like Standard Oil was back in the day). The real reason data is not like oil is that data is replicable and nonconsumable. Even still, I think the "data as oil" metaphor is valuable because it communicates this concept that we are becoming addicted to this resource that has world-altering negative externalities. That's all.