Issues of Legal Qualification of Big Data as Digital Assets

Antipova Kseniia Postgraduate student, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration 119606, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Pr. Vernadskogo, 84 antipova.xenia@gmail.com Other publications by this author

The transition to a digital society that humanity is currently experiencing determines the need to develop and implement modern promising technological solutions, among which one of the central places today is occupied by technologies based on artificial intelligence and big data.

According to a study by IDC (International Data Corporation), which operates in the field of information services, the cumulative annual growth rate of expenses for analytical processing of big data for the period from 2021 to 2025. Will be 12% (Global Spending on Big Data and Analytics Solutions Will Reach $215.7 Billion in 2021, According to a New IDC Spending Guide // URL: https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS48165721 ). Such costs will increase as the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. In turn, global revenues from the artificial intelligence market, including software, equipment and services, will grow by 19.6% year-on-year in 2022 to $432.8 billion (IDC Forecasts Companies to Increase Spend on AI Solutions by 19.6% in2022 // URL: https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS48881422 ).Among the many scientific, technical, social and other problems that arise during the development and implementation of artificial intelligence and big data technologies, it seems possible to single out legal problems, among which, in turn, there are problems related to the legal analysis of big data and their legal regulation.

Since the rapid development of the field of information technology requires the timely inclusion of innovative objects in the legal field. To date, in Russia and in the world, there are no civil studies on the nature and essence of digital assets and big data, as well as studies on their functional relationship, which complicates the process of information technology development of Russia and the world, slows down the economic growth of the country, complicates the process of movement of goods, works, services on the market. Research and generalization of Russian and world experience in terms of the form of turnover of big data technologies, artificial intelligence technologies leads to harmonization, unification, uniformity of application of the norms regulating public relations on the creation, processing, storage, use, transfer of big data. The relevance of the chosen topic is also due to the lack of a unified scientific and theoretical approach to the legal qualification of big data, as well as the existing regulatory issues in the field under consideration. In the article, the author makes an attempt to scientifically and theoretically substantiate the legal qualification of big data as digital assets. The object of the study is public relations in the field of creation, functioning, legal regulation of digital assets and big data. The subject of the research is the legislation of the Russian Federation, the legislation of the European Union regulating activities in the field of information technology, artificial intelligence, big data and digital assets, as well as the legal doctrine in the field of research on the nature, characteristics of big data and digital assets, legal documents of state bodies, legal entities of the Russian Federation and foreign countries in the field of use big data and digital assets, in particular guidelines, rules, regulations. The purpose of the presented work is to determine the legal qualification of big data as digital assets. When writing this article, the following scientific methods of cognition were used: dialectical (concepts, processes of formation and development of digital assets and big data in the modern world are studied), metaphysical (research of the institute of law of obligations, research of the institute of intellectual property, research of relations regulated by digital law, features and interrelation of the above-mentioned branches of law), as well as special methods of cognition were used: the method of comparative analysis, formallegal.

It should be noted that in many countries and at the international level, doctrinal documents are being adopted designed to stimulate the development of artificial intelligence systems and the turnover of big data. For example, in 2019. The Council of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) adopted the first intergovernmental standard in the field of artificial intelligence - Recommendations on artificial intelligence, which defined the fundamental principles in the field of cooperation on the development of artificial intelligence - ensuring respect for human rights and democratic values, principles of transparency and security (Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence // URL: https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0449 ). In 2020, the European Commission presented a White Paper on Artificial Intelligence – a European Approach to Excellence and Trust, which aims to promote the introduction of artificial intelligence and eliminate the risks of using new technologies (White Paper on Artificial Intelligence: a European approach to excellence and trust // URL: https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/white-paper-artificial-intelligence-european-approach-excellence-and-trust_en). In 2020. The European Commission has also approved the European Data Strategy, which outlines measures to create a European data economy while respecting European rules and values, as well as personal data legislation, consumer protection legislation and compliance with antitrust regulations (COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS A European strategy for data // URL: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT /?qid=1593073685620&uri=CELEX%3A52020DC0066). As a result, Regulation (EU) 2022/868 of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 30, 2022 on data management in Europe was adopted in Europe, which defines the procedure for the use of certain categories of data held by public sector bodies, as well as Regulation (COM/2022/68) of the European Parliament and of the Council on the agreed rules for Fair Access to and Use of Data (Data Law), which establishes rules for the provision of data generated when using a product or related service to the user of that product or service, the provision of data by data owners to data recipients and the provision of data by data holders to public sector bodies or institutions, agencies or bodies of the European Union (Regulation (EU) 2022/868 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2022 on European data governance and amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 (Data Governance Act) (Text with EEA relevance) // URL: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT /?uri=CELEX%3A32022R0868; Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data (Data Act) // URL: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2022:68:FIN).In the Russian Federation, the approval of the national program "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation" determined the directions of development of innovations, information technologies, artificial intelligence technologies (Passport of the national project "National Program "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation" (approved by the Presidium of the Presidential Council for Strategic Development and National Projects, Protocol No. 7 dated 04.06.2019)).

 Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 490 dated 10.10.2019 "On the development of artificial intelligence in the Russian Federation" approved the National Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence for the period up to 2030. According to this document, the objectives of the development of artificial intelligence in Russia are to support scientific research in order to ensure the advanced development of artificial intelligence, the creation of a comprehensive system for regulating public relations arising in connection with the development and use of artificial intelligence technologies, as well as improving the availability and quality of data necessary for the development of artificial intelligence technologies (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 10.10.2019 490 "On the development of artificial intelligence in the Russian Federation" together with the "National Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence for the period up to 2030"). And also on August 19, 2020, the Concept for the Development of regulation of relations in the field of artificial intelligence and robotics technologies until 2024 was approved, the tasks of which are to create the foundations of legal regulation of new public relations formed in connection with the use of artificial intelligence and robotics systems, and to identify legal barriers that hinder the development and application of artificial intelligence and robotics systems in various Sectors of the economy and social sphere (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated August 19, 2020 No. 2129-r on approval of the Concept for the Development of Regulation of Relations in the field of artificial Intelligence and robotics technologies for the period up to 2024). Within the framework of the project "Regulatory regulation of the digital Environment", legal norms regulating the collection, storage, and processing of data are being developed (Passport of the national project "National Program "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation" (approved by the Presidium of the Presidential Council for Strategic Development and National Projects, Protocol No. 7 dated 04.06.2019). And the key areas of work in the field of large data processing are outlined in the National Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence for the period up to 2030 and Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated May 9, 2017 No. 203 "On the Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation for 2017-2030" (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 10.10.2019 No. 490 "On the development of artificial intelligence in the Russian Federation" together with the "National Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence for the period up to 2030"; Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 203 dated May 9, 2017 "On the Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation for 2017-2030").The definition of the legal regime of big data today is characterized by a variety of approaches, among them: the attribution of big data to objects of civil law, the qualification of big data as information, the attribution of big data to non-traditional intellectual property objects, the attribution of big data to other property ^[1],[2].

In the context of the development of the digital economy and the rapid development of information technologies, the concept of classifying big data as digital assets deserves special attention.

In order to timely include innovative phenomena in civil law, the author of this article sets himself the tasks: to define the concept of digital assets, to define the concept of big data, to investigate the relationship between the concepts of digital assets and big data.

According to K. Y. Volkova, the adjectives "digital" and "electronic" can be used as synonyms when solving theoretical or practical problems of library and information activities ^[3]. L. V. Sannikova, Y. S. Kharitonova define digital essence through the use of advanced digital technologies, and the concept of "electronic" - using the concepts of "electronic document management", "electronic signature", that is, through the essence of the electronic form: "The transition to the electronic format of interaction does not require fundamentally new technological solutions based on digital technologies" ^[4]. It seems that the adjective "electronic" is used in relation to the form, and "digital" is used in relation to the essence of the object.

Considering the question of the relationship between the categories of "property" and "asset", E. N. Matveeva defines property as "a set of things, property rights and obligations, including exclusive rights", and the concept of "asset" as "a set of values belonging to organizations" ^[5]. According to E. A. Ignatieva, the concept of "asset" has the ability to bring economic benefits in the future, which distinguishes this concept from the related categories of "property" and "property" ^[6].

An extended interpretation of the concept of "property" is found in paragraph 66 of the ECHR Resolution of 13.12.2011:  "The concept of "property" reflected in the first paragraph of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention has an autonomous meaning, which is not limited to ownership rights in relation to tangible things and does not depend on formal classification under national legislation: some other rights and interests representing assets can also be considered as "property rights" and Therefore, as "property" within the meaning of this provision" (ECHR Ruling of 13.12.2011 "The case of Vasiliev and Kovtun v. the Russian Federation" (Complaint No. 13703/04). The confiscation and subsequent sale of cars imported by the applicants, as well as the refusal to consider claims for damages, are being appealed in the case. In the case, the requirements of paragraph 1 of Article 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to it were violated). M. A. Rozhkova points out that: "Following this concept gave the judges of the ECHR the opportunity to consider as property (economic asset), for example, future income, licenses and permits, business connections and established clientele, domain names, etc." ^[7]. E. N. Matveeva builds concepts in the order of narrowing: "objects of civil rights – assets – property" ^[5]. Assets are also defined as the resources of the organization, covering the entire property of the organization ^[5]. O. V. Bolotova identifies tangible, intangible and financial assets according to the criterion of materiality: "Tangible assets include those that have a materialized form, such as fixed assets, materials, stocks, intangible - the results of intellectual activity, such as trademarks, means of individualization, computer programs and others, it is customary to include highly liquid current assets, such as cash, securities and accounts receivable, as financial assets" ^[8].  It seems that a legal definition of the terms "property" and "asset" is necessary in order to avoid ambiguous interpretation. L. G. Efimova suggests identifying the concepts of "digital property" and "digital assets", defining them as "objects of civil turnover that do not have a material form, which are a digital code fixed on an electronic medium of long-term use, the disposal of which is possible only in an information system" ^[9].

 According to M. A. Rozhkova: "the concept of "digital asset" may include a variety of objects that have electronic form and economic value, which are not necessarily legally included in the number of objects of civil rights" ^[7]. M. A. Rozhkova refers to digital assets as virtual property that exists exclusively in electronic form, but also "objects already known to civil law, if they are created not in the "old", traditional way, but with the help of modern technologies in a "new form", for example, objects of digital art "digital art (digital painting, computer animation, electronic music)" ^[7]. L. V. Sannikova, Y. S. Kharitonova consider digital assets in a narrow and broad sense ^[4].

In a broad sense, digital assets include already existing objects in digital (electronic) form that have a special legal regime, for example, as the results of intellectual activity (certain types of content, such as texts, video and audio files, graphic images, etc.); in a narrow sense, digital assets are characterized by signs (virtuality, turnover extraterritoriality) and are defined as "new objects of property turnover that require the creation of legal regulation in order to distinguish from those objects of civil rights that, although they have undergone modification as a result of digitalization, do not need to create a new legal regime" ^[4]. Digital assets in a narrow sense are understood as new economic objects created using digital technologies, for example, crypto assets (tokens and cryptocurrencies), big data, domain names and accounts, virtual property.A.V. Tumakov, N. A. Petrakov distinguish "digital tangible (physical) property" and "digital virtual property": "By nature, objects can be divided into virtual and material, by the form of representation into digital and analog.

Virtual objects find their expression mainly in digital form, but they can also exist in analog form, for example, thoughts, fantasies, ideas, etc." ^[10].  Digital tangible property includes existing objects of civil law created in electronic form, for example, "computer animation, electronic music, digital painting", and digital virtual property - cryptocurrency, virtual tokens, domain names ^[10].

The collective concept of digital assets includes the categories of "digital rights" and "digital currency". According to L. G. Efimova, digital signs (tokens), digital currencies, and other digital property also belong to the types of digital assets ^[9].

 "Digital rights" refer to property rights as part of "other property" on the basis of Article 128 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Part One) of 30.11.1994 No. 51-FZ). Digital rights are legally binding and other rights, the content and conditions of which are determined in accordance with the rules of the information system (paragraph 1 of Article141.1. of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).  R.M. Yankovsky says that "digital law is a form in which new binding and other rights are created"; "digital rights can certify both binding and corporate, and even exclusive rights, depending on what will be established in special legislation" ^[11].The group of digital rights includes utilitarian digital rights and digital financial assets arising in connection with investing and attracting investments using investment platforms.

  Utilitarian digital rights are recognized as:

– the right to demand the transfer of a thing;

– the right to demand the transfer of exclusive rights to the results of intellectual activity or the rights to use the results of intellectual activity;

– the right to demand the performance of works or the provision of services (clause 1 of Article 8 of Federal Law No. 259-FZ dated 02.08.2019 "On Attracting Investments using Investment Platforms and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation").

Utilitarian digital law is certified by a digital certificate. A digital certificate is a non–emissive non-documentary security that has no nominal value, which certifies that its owner owns a utilitarian digital right. The depository can dispose of the utilitarian digital right, and the owner can demand execution by order (clause 1 of Article 9 of Federal Law No. 259–FZ dated 02.08.2019 "On Attracting Investments using Investment Platforms and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation").

Digital financial assets - digital rights, which include:

– monetary requirements;

– exercise of rights on equity securities;

– the rights of participation in the capital of a non-public joint-stock company;

– the right to demand the transfer of equity securities, the issue, accounting and circulation of which are possible only by making (changing) entries in the information system based on the distributed registry, as well as in other information systems (paragraph 2 of Article 1 of the Federal Law of 31.07.2020 No. 259-FZ "On Digital Financial Assets, digital Currency and Amendments to separate legislative acts of the Russian Federation").

The next category of digital assets is the "Digital Money" category. According to M. A. Rozhkova, cryptocurrency is "one of the varieties of digital money" ^[12]. M. A. Rozhkova refers to the following phenomena as "digital money"::

"– mobile fiat currency - (non-cash funds, for the storage and implementation of which "electronic wallets" and bank smart cards are used, for example, systems of "electronic" wallets Pay Pal, YUMOPEU);

 – currency of virtual worlds (game currency) – the property value of virtual property is not in itself, but only as a component of a specific information product;

– corporate currency – customer rewards for loyalty to the company, for example, bonuses or points for each purchase, a bonus in the form of a refund of part of the purchase price (cashback, accumulated miles);

– cryptocurrency" ^[12].

R. M. Yankovsky defines the signs of a cryptocurrency: "1) a set of electronic data, 2) the owner of which does not receive claims against third parties and 3) which can be used as a means of payment or for investment" ^[11].

Summing up, it should be noted that the conceptual apparatus of the category of digital assets is formed based on the following.

Digital assets are defined as a collective category of objects characterized by signs of digital form, virtuality of the nature of the asset, turnover, economic value, extraterritoriality. Types of digital assets based on the classification by the nature of objects include digital virtual assets and digital tangible assets. The category of digital assets in the realities of the current legislation includes digital rights as a property right of claim; digital money (digital currency), and digital property expressed in digital/virtual form, as well as meeting the criteria of economic value and turnover. The legal qualification of already existing objects of digital property is carried out on the basis of civil legislation, for example, by applying the provisions of Part four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

 What place can big data occupy among the above structure?

The term "big data" appeared in the scientific literature in 2001-2008. Researchers already then identified the main features of big data, which include the features of "5 V": Volume (large amount of data); Velocity (data processing speed); Variety (data diversity); Value (data value); Veracity (reliability data) ^[13]. However, big data is becoming the most relevant right now due to the active development of the Internet, artificial intelligence, the involvement of many states in the digitalization of society, which determines the need to develop legal regulation of the phenomenon of big data. Thanks to these signs, big data is differentiated from other diverse information. Big data is used in many sectors of public economic life, for example, industrial production, transportation, trade, urban infrastructure, public sector, etc. 

According to A.I. Savelyev: "Big data is a dynamically changing array of information, which is valuable due to its large volumes and the possibility of efficient and fast processing by automated means, which, in turn, provides the possibility of its use for analytics, forecasting and automation of business processes," where the data array is defined as: "a set of data existing in machine-readable form about the surrounding world and (or) about the processes taking place in it, formed on the basis of sources of technical or social origin and having actual or potential commercial value" ^[1],[14].

Big data is large data arrays, characterized mainly by such characteristics as volume, diversity, processing speed and variability, which require the use of scaling technology for efficient storage, processing, management and analysis (clause 3.1.2 "GOST R ISO/IEC 20546-2021. National Standard of the Russian Federation. Information technology. Big data. Overview and Dictionary").

The signs of big data include:

data volume - indicates the quantitative characteristic of the data;

variety of data – a range of formats, logical models;

data processing speed – the flow rate at which data is created, transmitted, stored, analyzed, or visualized;

data variability – changes in the transmission rate, format or structure, semantics or quality of the data array;

data reliability – completeness and/or accuracy of data;

data variability is a characteristic of data related to the rate of their change over time ^[30].

The primary element of big data is "information". Information - information (messages, data) regardless of the form of their presentation (Clause 1 of Article 2 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ of 27.07.2006 "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection"). The question of the relationship between the concepts of information and data is debatable.

For example, A. I. Savelyev suggests the prospect of distinguishing the concepts of information and data ^[1]. M. A. Rozhkova considers messages, information, data through the prism of the concept of two elements of data processing - technical (methods of information processing) and substantive (semantic component of information, data analytics) ^[15]. Following the concept, the author's conclusions should be formulated as follows:

- a message (a form of information transmission that cannot become an object of subjective civil rights);

- information (information related to a specific subject, object, fact, case; the criterion of "unknown content to third parties" allows you to highlight "(1) publicly available and well-known information; (2) personal data (personal information) and (3) secrets");

- data ("a collection of information, combined and ordered by any attribute, several attributes or criteria"); thus, data should be considered "as one of the aspects of information" ^[15].

V. A. Dozortsev wrote about the nature of information: "In a broad sense, "information" can be understood as any information transmitted on any basis. This includes, in particular, the transfer of information related to the field of production, which is only a prerequisite for practical use and has no independent significance. Such a broad concept of information will also include information that is of value not as such, but in connection with their practical application, when the communication of information has a subordinate or, in any case, combined meaning - both data transmission and their practical use" ^[16]. In a narrow sense, V. A. Dozortsev considers "information as such", i.e. separate information characterized by the following features: (1) "the object is information, information as such, in a separate form"; (2) "they (information) are a special commodity transferred to other persons through the market, as an object of economic turnover, and as such having commercial value"; (3) "the information must not be publicly available, otherwise there would be no object of transmission, the object would not be the information, but their use" ^[16].The European approach is the separation of personal and non-personal data.

Personal data is divided into: "Provided data (volunteered data), which are provided by the subject himself (for example, posted by him on a social network); observed data (observed data), which appear during the use of a certain service by the subject (for example, geolocation data or metadata); forecast data (inferred data), which are the result of the analysis of the data of the first two groups is an assessment of the subject (for example, a credit rating) or statistical data (for example, about the preferences of a certain group of persons)" ^[17].

Big data by source of origin is classified into big user data and big industrial (industrial) data. Industrial data includes "information, the source of which is objects of industrial, transport infrastructure, communication infrastructure" ^[1], large industrial data is data generated using the "Internet of Things" without human intervention, for example, information read by sensors, sensors, electronic devices, smartphones, etc. Large user data is information created by people in the process of carrying out activities on the use of devices and applications on the Internet. A. I. Savelyev refers to such data as social network data; information received from geolocation devices; user behavior on the Internet – i.e. any information characterizing the behavior of people ^[14].

M. A. Rozhkova classifies big data, depending on the source, into "technical" (Internet of Things data) and "social" (data from social media that determine various ways of electronic communication) ^[15].

According to the degree of processing, big data is divided into raw (raw) data and processed, structured and unstructured data can be attributed to the same classification. It is interesting to cite here the opinion of O. V. Kalyatin, according to which: "Raw data by its nature is always information about objective reality, for example, meteorological data, geophysical data, telephone numbers, addresses, etc., obtained by performing a certain kind of technical operations and not reflecting the identity of the person who received them" ^[18].

Depending on the "characteristics" of the data or the degree of processing, M. A. Rozhkova distinguishes:

"structured data" (e.g. tables);

"unstructured data is heterogeneous data that requires the use of special extraction and structuring techniques so that various methods of machine processing can be carried out against them... data from social networks, video and audio files, books and magazines, metadata, GPS data, medical records...";

"weakly structured (semi–structured) data is available for machine recognition, but requires the use of additional techniques to obtain specific information (they are structured in a certain way, but do not have a table format characteristic of structured data" ^[15].

In accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 7 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ of 27.07.2006 "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection", publicly available information is generally known information and other information, access to which is not restricted. The form of publicly available data is open data, which means information posted on the Internet in a format that allows automated processing without prior changes by a person for the purpose of reusing it (clause 4 of Article 7 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ of 27.07.2006 "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection"). The category "open data" according to paragraph 15 of the preamble of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union 2019/1024 of June 20, 2019 on open data and on the secondary use of public sector information is data in an open format that can be freely used, reused and shared by any user for any purpose (Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on open data and the re-use of public sector information (recast)). Open data presupposes wide availability and secondary use of public sector information for private or commercial purposes. Open data includes "open government data" created by government agencies, for example, the open data portal of the Russian Federation and the open data portal  Government of Moscow (Open Data Portal of the Russian Federation // URL: https://data.gov.ru /; Open Data portal of the Moscow Government // URL:https://data.mos.ru/). Open data can be published on various information resources on the Internet: in particular, open scientific data (open science data) or open research data (open research data) are posted on the websites of universities and research organizations or specially created sites. Since access to publicly available open data is not limited, this category of data does not have signs of turnover and commercial value. The same provision applies to raw data. However, it is possible to dispose of the result of analytical or other processing of such data.A. N. Lapteva characterizes big data as a construction of a property complex, which is a set of heterogeneous things, property rights (binding, exclusive rights), debts (obligations) that have a common purpose and form a single legal field ^[19].

Big data as a kind of property complex may include: 1) information consisting of raw data (raw data and processing results (which may also be in a materialized form); 2) property rights (for example, exclusive rights to the results of intellectual activity of programs for electronic computers (computer programs), databases).

E. A. Sukhanov argues that a single property complex is an independent object of not any property, but only binding rights related to the transfer of this property from one person to another. A single property complex "cannot become a single object of real right (property), because in the "static" (state of ownership, not transfer), this complex inevitably legally breaks up into various objects with different civil law regimes: things, binding and exclusive rights, etc." ^[20].  Thus, the application of the concept of a single property complex in relation to big data seems impractical, since the legal qualification of big data elements is necessary regardless of the application of the rule on a single property complex.

L. V. Sannikova, Yu. S. Kharitonova believe that from the point of view of legal support, big data is considered as a digital asset: "Information in digital binary form, systematized by certain labels and expressed externally in the database" ^[4].

In accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 2 of the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Agreed Rules for Fair Access to and Use of Data (Data Law) of February 23, 2022, data is defined as any digital representation of actions, facts or information and any compilation of such actions, facts or information, including in the form of sound, visual or audiovisual recording (Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on harmonized rules on fair access to and use of data (Data Act) // URL: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT /?uri=COM:2022:68:FIN).Big data can have circulation in the public sector of open data, or it can be created and have circulation in the private sector.

  Big data of the private sector is involved in civil turnover and can be the subject of transactions and contracts, while public sector data cannot act in this capacity, since they are publicly available. The term big data is a diverse phenomenon and is widely used in various meanings. The complexity in the development of regulatory regulation is due to the absence of an individually defined object, by determining which, it would be possible to establish applicable legal norms, since for each specific case, big data is determined based on objective criteria - features (data volume, data diversity, processing speed), for example, in relation to industrial production, big data refers to a set of devices that collect, process information and the result of such processing, which also has its own specific form, and in relation to analytical data processing, big data includes the processes involved in such processing and its results.

The statement of M. A. Rozhkova most fully reflects the diversity of the concept of big data: "When it comes to the collection, accumulation, storage and other processing of data, the term big data can be used to refer, firstly, to huge volumes of diverse information and, secondly, to the latest technologies and tools for collecting, accumulating, storing and other processing of data, alternative to those used for databases" ^[15]. So, in a broad sense, big data is understood as the activity of collecting, processing and using large amounts of data that meets the criteria of high data processing speed, data diversity, and data value. In a narrow sense, big data is a specifically defined set of data that has a large volume, a variety of data, differing in the speed of data processing.

At the end of the study, it should be noted that the legal qualification of big data is possible in the case of considering big data not as a technology or phenomenon, but only when determining the result of big data. It is necessary to define such a result (object) of big data processing or other big data activity. Thus, it is possible to apply the norms on other property, on the results of intellectual activity within the framework of civil law regulation, as well as the norms of information regulation in accordance with the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" dated 27.07.2006 No. 149-FZ. Thus, the broad interpretation of data within the framework of the European approach makes it possible to understand by data any object of processing or using big data technology that corresponds to the characteristics of big data (processing speed, large amount of data, commercial value). It seems that the approach to defining big data as digital assets can be applied to a specific result of big data processing corresponding to the characteristics of digital assets, namely, the digital form, the virtuality of the nature of the asset, turnover, economic value, extraterritoriality. Thus, big data can be defined as both digital virtual property and digital tangible property. Digital virtual property takes place when it exists in exclusively digital form, this includes, for example, the turnover of cryptocurrencies, tokens, blockchain registries, etc. The result of processing big data can also be attributed to digital tangible property, if the result of such processing (object) can be qualified as the result of intellectual activity on the basis of Article 1225 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, for example, works of science, literature and art; computer programs; databases; production secrets (know-how), etc.