Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 44 total)
  • Pedants' Corner
  • radtothepowerofsik
    Free Member

    millions of peoples’ data

    or

    millions of people’s data

    for the collective data belonging to millions of collective people

    radtothepowerofsik
    Free Member

    Oh, hang on, people is the plural so it’s the second one.

    IHN
    Full Member

    The first, but why not:

    ‘data belonging to millions of people’

    Stoner
    Free Member

    millions of peoples’ data

    since data is plural, no?

    BigJohn
    Full Member

    People can be plural or singular.

    Lots of individuals in one place are people. Things belonging to them are people’s.

    The inhabitants of France and Germany are French and German peoples. Things belonging to them are peoples’.

    IHN
    Full Member

    peoples is the plural of people is the plural of person. Clear, eh?

    camo16
    Free Member

    I’d go with IHN’s ‘data belonging to millions of people’

    Both peoples’ and people’s look a bit weird to me.

    Stoner
    Free Member

    People’s looks fine because http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People’s_Republic

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    Second one.

    Still sounds clunky though.

    ‘Data from millions of people’ or ‘Data belonging to millions…’ depending on exact context.

    WackoAK
    Free Member

    Are you writing a press release stating that the Government has misplaced/sold millions of peoples’ data?

    radtothepowerofsik
    Free Member

    No, but the appearance of one would not surprise me.

    I’m writing the copy our website update, we do security systems for data centres (among other things)

    I’m going with “Your data centre houses millions of people’s personal information”, I didn’t want data twice in the same sentence

    IHN
    Full Member

    “Your data centre houses millions of people’s personal information”

    Sounds v.clunky.

    How about:

    “Your datacentre [it’s a single word isn’t it?] houses personal information belonging to millions of people”

    16stonepig
    Free Member

    Both can be correct, but mean subtly differing things.

    konabunny
    Free Member

    Surely it should be

    millions of persons’ data

    ?

    radtothepowerofsik
    Free Member

    Nice IHN, I’ll have that! Cheque’s in the post

    Cougar
    Full Member

    “your data centre houses shitloads of data”

    IHN
    Full Member

    “your data centre houses shitloads of data”

    Tut

    “your data centre houses shit-loads of data”

    🙂

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    The data doesn’t belong to peoples it belongs to people so the second one.

    camo16
    Free Member

    “your data centre houses shitloads of data”

    Tut

    “your data centre houses shit-loads of data”

    No, not hyphenated according to urban dictionary:

    shitload

    meaning quite a few, a bunch, a lot, very many, more than you care to be able to count, more than you can count; a widely used exaggeration of there being far too many of something ~ not to be confused with a boatload or a whole ******* bunch

    konabunny
    Free Member

    “your data centrehouses shit loads of data”

    psling
    Free Member

    people is a singular noun meaning more that one person. The plural in this instance is millions (being the plural of million). So, although the data belongs to more than one person, the use of the word people in the statement is in fact singular; therefore it is apostophe s, not s apostophe. Possibly 😉
    (The use of the word peoples would be more appropriate to describing the populations of more than one country in geographical terms)

    Kevevs
    Free Member

    loadsa bods shite eh!

    IHN
    Full Member

    or just do as the Germans do:

    Yourdatacentrehousespersonalinformationbelongingtomillionsofpeople

    camo16
    Free Member

    Except Germans lob the verb at the end, so pedantically speaking, it’s…

    Yourdatacentrepersonalinformationbelongingtomillionsofpeoplehouses

    IHN
    Full Member

    Good work 🙂

    camo16
    Free Member

    * is chuffed *

    😉

    IHN
    Full Member

    Or Yoda it:

    Personal information belonging to millions of people it houses your data centre does

    WackoAK
    Free Member

    or do what the American’s do and and use “a lot of stuff”.

    WorldClassAccident
    Free Member

    Please can we start by defining the dimensions of the corner that we are expected to occupy.

    camo16
    Free Member

    I’m not even sure it is a ‘corner’ but I’m loathe to describe it as a ‘cranny’ or a ‘nook’.

    Dorset_Knob
    Free Member

    The data doesn’t belong to millions of people. So, to disambiguate:

    “Our datacentre holds personal information for millions of people.”

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    I don’t think the data belongs to the people anyway, it’s just about them.

    Dorset_Knob
    Free Member

    I don’t think the data belongs to the people anyway, it’s just about them.

    Ah, so that’s a different kettle of eels.

    IHN
    Full Member

    But surely, according to the DPA, the data does indeed belong to the people and they, the people, are simply allowing the instition(s) in question to store it at the datacentre/data centre/centre of data and use it only for specific purposes.

    Our datacentre holds personal information for millions of people

    That’s not necessarily correct either, unless the people have asked the institutions to hold the data, i.e. the holding of the data by the institution is a service in itself. In most cases, the institutions have asked the people if their data can be held.

    Dorset_Knob
    Free Member

    Our datacentre holds information about millions of people?

    Dorset_Knob
    Free Member

    The lives of millions are tracked, measured and mined within our sinister shed.

    aracer
    Free Member

    Ah, but are you sure that the datacentre doesn’t house data for millions of peoples?

    nickf
    Free Member

    I’m not even sure it is a ‘corner’ but I’m loathe to describe it as a ‘cranny’ or a ‘nook’.

    I’d be loath to misspell loath.

    Squidlord
    Free Member

    Is it too late to suggest “All your data are belong to us”?

    hamishthecat
    Free Member

    The data doesn’t do not belong to peoples it they belongs to people so the second one

    🙂

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