Europe as digital champion - at what price?

Mark Scott might be right (Europe is fighting tech battle with one hand tied behind its back), European rules may not  create the best climate for all-encompassing digital powers. At first glance, there are also simple answers at hand:  do we want to tolerate a chinese-type surveillance state or adopt an american-type business-is-all-that-counts mindset to be digital champions? Can we, on the other hand, exclude Chinese (think Huawei) or U.S. (Google knows it all, Amazon sells it all, etc.) giants and be digital champions only for ourselves, playing by our own rules? The success of European rules also over Facebook and the like - enter Maximian Schrems - means that we enjoy what these companies developed on the back of the citizens of their countries but we are not able to conquer their lands.

To give a more balanced answer, we need to step one step back. Of course data are not the only force and not the only obstacle (see also on Politico), let us, however, look at them. Data is (or are, if you are less orthodox in language) the new oil, does it say. Power, however, is not in oil but in petrol and petrochemicals. Similarly, the key to real success is what you do with data. Researchers have found ways to link  profile and behavioural data without identifying the persons. One solution is proposed by Accenture, for example. This is more complicated and may be more costly, but can use data of persons in areas outside the U.S. and China, where the example of strict European data protection rules are being followed - South-America, Japan, other parts of Asia and Africa. This is a huge potential which we may lose if we just imitate and do not create our own models.