If you want to keep the use of context (if not actually emphasize it), I would reverse the sentence and say:
Without context, data is only potential information.
Per Merriam-Webster's definition of potential:
1 : existing in possibility : capable of development into actuality
// potential benefits
Although the sentence is reversed, the meaning is still that you need context in order to turn data into actual information. And saying that it's only potential information, means that it's nothing other than that. (In point of fact, data is something without context, just not what you want it to be.)