Agricultural production and environmental monitoring is becoming increasingly information orientated. The ability to disseminate spatial information electronically, particularly via the Internet, is also improving rapidly. Recently a soil database of physical soil measurements and descriptions, as well as sensor measurements (e.g. radiometric and electromagnetic surveys), has been collated for the Australian cotton industry. The cotton industry and the federal government have jointly funded the collection of the soil data. A proposal to incorporate the database into a Soil Information System for web-based publication has raised a number of concerns from growers, industry personnel and scientists regarding who will have access to the information and for what purpose. When interpreted correctly information provides knowledge and knowledge is power. However who owns this information? Does the information belong to the farmer or land-owner whose land the soil was sampled from, the agency that financed the data collection or the agency whose expertise collected them? Should the information be available to external sources, e.g., government agencies, real estate agencies, the next-door neighbour, etc? Additionally what are the implications for the industry and landholders, particularly with respect to unscrupulous use of the information for land valuation? Should different groups have access to different levels of information e.g. raw data versus processed information, e.g. raster or vector GIS layers? This paper is aimed at identifying the concerns within the cotton industry, discussing approaches to regulating data use and the broader implications that such regulations may have for agriculture and the environmental sciences in general.