Digitalem

Digitalem is a term used in information theory and data ethics to describe the aggregate set of digital emissions generated by interactions among people, devices, and software within networked environments. These emissions include telemetry data, access logs, metadata, event streams, and content-related signals that flow through information systems.

The term was introduced in early 2020s academic and industry discussions to capture the idea that digital activity produces traceable signals beyond the content itself. Digitalem emphasizes not only the data created by explicit user input but also the ambient signals produced by devices, platforms, and applications as they operate and communicate.

Conceptually, digitalem can be modeled as a multi-layered construct consisting of emission sources (users, devices, applications), transmission channels (networks, protocols), storage and processing (logs, databases, analytics pipelines), and governance controls (consent, access rights, retention policies). Representations such as digitalem graphs or matrices are used to analyze relationships among sources, determine data flows, and assess potential privacy or security risks.

Privacy and governance considerations are central to discussions of digitalem. The concept highlights questions of data ownership, consent, portability, data minimization, and transparency. By focusing on emissions rather than only the resulting data products, digitalem supports approaches to design, auditing, and regulation that aim to limit unnecessary collection and improve user control over personal signals.

Critics caution that digitalem can be abstract and difficult to measure consistently across contexts, and that focusing on emissions may complicate the distinction between data as a resource and data as an intrusion. See also: digital footprint, data ethics, privacy by design.