Data, Information, and Knowledge

Data, information, and knowledge are three related, but different things. These three relates on how humans and businesses observe and work in their environment, which can be practically applied to information systems.

Data refers simply to raw facts and figures. Alone it tells you nothing. The real goal is to turn data into information. Data becomes information when it’s presented in a context so that it can answer a question or support decision making. And it’s when this information can be combined with a manager’s knowledge—their insight from experience and expertise—that stronger decisions can be made.

Felvegi et al. (2019). Foundations of Management Information Systems. Houston: University of Houston. Online: https://uhlibraries.pressbooks.pub/mis3300/chapter/data-information-and-knowledge/. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Our original Privacy Policy (September 2023) also contained an extended definition of the above. We feel it’s important to include them in our legal code to clarify certain terms, such as “information about you as received from decentralized systems”.

This Privacy Policy uses the word “data” and “information” interchangibly. We use the following simple definitions, as commonly introduced in ICT curriculums of AP®, Empat Pilar Literasi Digital, GCSE, IGCSE®, and Kurikulum Merdeka to comply with certain children data protection laws on explaining our Privacy Policy:

• Personal data refers to small things we directly collect from you or your device, such as where you are right now and your email address. These data may be represented in various ways, such as in plain text and inside a QR Code®.
• Personal information refers to larger things we can obtain by combining your personal data altogether, such as your friends or contact list.
• Additionally, knowledge can be obtained by combining your information from one to another, such as how often you use our apps, whether your user account was hacked, and predicting what content which you may like the next time you open our apps.

Additionally, “information about you” does not always mean data or information that you have directly sent to us. These can be also sent by others, for example, when your friend decided to share your contact information to us through our Products and Services.

Lastly, decentralized electronic systems are those apps, sites, and services which are designed to interact between each other, including us. One example is email services over the Internet, where email servers can communicate to each other, but the ones operating them cannot fully control every email server connected through the Internet.

AP and Advanced Placement are registered trademarks of College Board in the United States and other countries. IGCSE is a registered trademark of Cambridge Assessments International Education in the United Kingdom and other countries. QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE, Inc. in Japan and other countries.