Recently, I’ve been noticing more intellectual English speakers using the word “data” as a countable noun. In the past, I had only observed the word to be used as a uncountable noun.
Though it is true that “data” was originally the plural form of the singular “datum”, I think that the later has fallen so far out of use that the former may now be freely used as an uncountable noun. So, though you may occasionally hear people say “these data” or “those data”, I say, “this data” and “that data” us perfectly fine. Claiming otherwise is just a form of English snobbery that does not wear well.
And that is a hill that I am prepared to die on!
What say you?