I think what helps make it art is that this artist took this idea, made it into an object (the hard drive with all the data), and then labeled it/made it access

I think what helps make it art is that this artist took this idea, made it into an object (the hard drive with all the data), and then labeled it/made it accessible in such a way that we start to question it differently than if we had just looked at some old hard drive in our room.. So yeah, it's art, but in a sense away from typical mediums like music or painting, etc.