First-, second-, and third-party data
Within any mid to large-sized organization, you can find a vast swathe of different types of data that serve unique purposes and can provide valuable insights when harnessed effectively. Even if your organization does not have easily accessible or useful internal data to suit the business use cases you have identified, it is possible to look outside your organization toward external data sources. This is where the concepts of first-, second-, and third-party data are useful to understand.
The following diagram represents how your data (darker) interacts with data from external organizations (lighter) for the definitions of first-, second-, and third-party data:
- First-party data is data that’s internal to your organization, such as customer data or employee data.
- Second-party data is data that’s shared as part of a data-sharing partnership or agreement with another organization.
- Third-party data is data that’...
