open (INFILE, "datafile.txt") or die "oopsie can not open datafile.txt!  $1\n";
while (<INFILE>) {
chomp;
($part1,$part2) = split /=/;
$itsahash{"$part1"} = $part2;
}

then you can access what you thought was data in the OP as:

print $itsahash{"data"};