Digital Battery Kant, Data, and the Infringement of Innate Rights

Abstract

The defining debate regarding data privacy rests on a catastrophic category error: the confusion of property with the person. This paper employs Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of right (specifically the distinction between internal and external possession) to argue that the extraction of behavioural data constitutes "Digital Battery" rather than theft. By analyzing the "Fallacy of Exteriority," which treats the immediate expression of human agency as an unowned external object, this study reveals that the current digital state of nature violates the innate right of freedom. Consequently, standard "Terms of Service" agreements are exposed as legally void mechanisms that force subjects to alienate inalienable rights. The paper concludes that regulatory solutions focused on ownership and compensation are insufficient; instead, a new Public Right is required that recognizes cognitive data as an extension of the self, strictly prohibiting its commodification.