Memories, as I said before, are also thoughts. They may be the same, but even if they are, it is necessary to make a distinction between thoughts (generated and caused by me), and data itself (external to me).

Data is an abstraction created by our mind of an external object, if we say that the external object, like DNA, is data in itself, then we would have to say that everything in the universe is also data. In that case, the word would cease to mean what I am saying, and yes, indeed the data could think for itself, but I would also be data so there would not be much difference.

In that case, the data that would be me would determine my actions, and the external data would influence it.