The plural form refers to the stuff we put into computers in the hope of getting something useful out.
Most companies are hard a work turning data into information.
Most every one instinctively knows the difference between data and information. Taken alone, one is simply a clock record, the other a temperature record. Multiple data points like those records contain information called a trend. Information, as opposed to data, comes from the juxtaposition of related data points. The temperature change in the morning was increasing, leveled off at noon, and decreased rapidly in the afternoon.