With the increased rate of data collection, there are growing problems with how to efficiently and economically store that data. DNA data storage is an option that seemed untenable until recent improvements in the ability to read, write and store data in synthetic DNA molecules. There is growing interest as to how the international access and benefit-sharing (ABS) regime created under the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its associated Nagoya Protocol will apply to synthetic biology, but the discussions have so far only dealt with artificially modified genetic resources that have a natural precursor from the environment. This is the first exploration as to whether ABS policies can be applied, or are likely to be applied, to purely synthetic DNA molecules that have been synthesised with the sole purpose of storing non-biological data.