Data has an ultimate storage capacity of eight hundred quadrillion bits. His total linear computational speed has been rated at sixty trillion operations per second (from "Measure of a Man").

He was built by Dr. Noonien Soong, who was taught by Ira Graves ("The Schizoid Man"). He was "born" on February 2, 2336 on Omicron Theta Four, and was at SFA from 2341-2345. He has a brother Lore (who died in "Descent II") and a daughter Lal (born, lived, and presumed dead in "The Offspring"). He and Tasha Yar were "more than friends" ("The Naked Now") or as he said in "The Measure of a Man", "We were... intimate".

He has an android mother, Juliana Tainer, also built by Dr. Noonien Soong after the real Juliana Tainer's death in year 2336. ("Inheritance") And Dr. Noonien Soong was killed by Lore on stardate 44085.7 (in year 2367) ("Brothers"). Data dreams, and he has a female cat (original male in fact), called Spot.

The character was based on Questor, from "The Questor Tapes." Data is left-handed (not surprising, since Brent Spiner is).

He resided in deck 2, room 3653 on Enterprise-D.

La Forge helped Data to install the emotion chip in 2371 (about stardate 48450). It was learned that the chip can not be forcedly removed from Data ("Star Trek: Generations"). However, Data has the ability to turn it on or off. ("Star Trek: First Contact"). He was tempted by the Borg Queen's offer for 0.68 second in 2373 (stardate 50893.5). His current assignment is on Enterprise-E.