Data and technology

As a potential technology leader, I understand the importance of data. I understand how it is important to the decision making progress and how data is related to that data. What I do not understand is the data collection itself...where does the data come from? Who collected the data? How was the data collected?

I guess my point is this; if data is being used to drive decisions, education or otherwise, why would the sources, who collected it and other factors not included? Would these answers not make the data more important to stakeholders and also give the decisions based upon that data more relevant?

Your thoughts please...