The Rock Climber’s Trail Guide: Milepost 2 Published Dec 11, 2020 A trail map, filled with symbols and different types of lines, can be confusing if you’re not familiar with the legend. The legend tells you what those lines and symbols mean. It’s difficult to talk about data in meaningful ways without a common vocabulary. So, let’s define data and the types of data that exist. Term Data Definition Facts, statistics, or other stored information. Example A personʼs birthdate in Rock is considered a piece of data. The Person Profile contains “person data” which includes multiple items like name, birthday and address. Term First-Party Data Definition Data you have collected yourself. Example Any data you have in Rock would be considered your first-party data. Term Second-Party Data Definition Data someone else has collected themselves. Example The first-party data your organization collects would be second-party data to anyone else who uses it. Term Third-Party Data Definition Data found (and typically aggregated) by an entity that does not directly collect data themselves. Example A consulting firm uses birth date data from your organization and similar organizations in your area to tell you the average age of those who use the services you provide. Often, third-party data is sold to organizations for use in marketing, recruitment, etc. Term Proxy Data Definition Data used to study something for which no direct information is available. Example All the cars in your organizationʼs parking lot are expensive luxury cars. You can conclude you serve a wealthy population even though you have absolutely no income data.