Governments and commercial entities consider data to be important. Internationally data has become a new commodity that is sold and traded on markets. In New Zealand data is used for social and economic development among other things. If the New Zealand government didn’t place a high value on the data it holds, it would be obliged to not retain or create the data. Because of the western perspective that data is anonymous, the New Zealand government and other governments have treated data about its people and land as terra nullius. By digitizing Māori data and information without permission or consultation they have breached traditional Māori customary rights and beliefs. It is too late to prevent the digitization and dissemination of taonga in the web and in digital repositories, but it is not too late to be considerate of customary rights/beliefs and to lessen any future impacts.
If we consider the early colonisers to New Zealand who normalized the practice of collecting human body parts such as heads. Society and government did not see anything wrong with this barbaric practice. It is no longer socially acceptable. Only recently has repatriation of these human remains began. With the same knowledge learnt by history, we now must contemplate how many years will go by till we repatriate our data?
Tipuna Māori gave ethnographers tapu information for paper medium created by metal
plates. The distribution was severely restricted to those who could purchase a book. Informants had no idea of the Internet and information flow and speed of that flow. Data today faces a similar fate. Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence are future risks that will affect Māori Data in ways that no one has yet realized the potential impacts to Māori.

Read more:

Taiuru, K. (2018, November). Why Data is a Taonga: A customary Māori perspective. https://taiuru.co.nz/data-is-a-taonga/