Data Law in Europe: “Privacy Sells” versus “Sell Privacy”

“Privacy Sells” versus “Sell Privacy”: Europe’s data law must prove itself so that its basic principle and the data economy can survive in international competition. A guest post.

Dhe European data strategy aims to put the EU in a leading position in the data-driven society. Data should be able to be passed on across sectors for the benefit of business, science and the state. The central legal acts for this are the already passed Data Governance Act (DGA) and the upcoming Data Act (DA). According to the former, public bodies are given the opportunity to provide data for further use. The latter addresses the economy. Data that is currently in the hands of large platforms should also be made economically viable for small and medium-sized EU companies. In this way, the legislator wants to create incentives for innovative business ideas in the right place. In addition, users should be able to share their data.

In addition, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) imposes obligations on the “gatekeepers”, who also dominate the digital economy within the EU, in order to create fair competition in the internal market. Users should have more data sovereignty. The Digital Services Act (DSA), on the other hand, claims nothing less than to secure democracy. In particular, it obliges the major online platforms to fight hate, fake news and crime on the Internet. The corporations must establish processes that reduce the risks of their business model.