We’re entering the second fifth of the 21st century and, on one of technology‘s fronts, things look like this. America and China produce, export and deploy the most advanced technological infrastructure, mobile applications and innovation research - 5G (and 6G already), machine aided policing and a multitude of consumer focused apps and tools.
Multiple paradigm shifting technologies come out of Europe as well, although with less frequency and reach. The EU did however establish itself as the one bloc out of the three that leads the research and introduction of laws, regulations, principles and codes of conduct to preserve digital rights and promote a human centric approach to technology.
This tripolar system was created in the first 20 years. In the next 20, this rift will either widen or shrink and a winning model will be adopted as the new modus operandi for both private and state actors.
Digital sovereignty
Recently German and French leaders expressed concerns about the loss of data sovereignty - that is control of online data whether by companies or individuals - to non EU, namely US, corporations. According to Andrea Renda, of the European think tank CEPS, 94% of data in the western world is stored in the US.
Although many individual states as well as Europe as a union limit the transfer of sensitive data such as financial, tax or medical information, personal data gathered on social networking sites, via email providers and other popular services ends up being transferred to the US.
It is important to note that European countries are not the only ones seeking protectionist stances on digital data. More than 30 countries around the world have rules governing the storage and transfer of different types of data, with Russia, China, India and Turkey being the most in the news.
The layer on top of which many modern services are built also belong, mostly, to US companies. Cloud computing and storage power startups and big companies alike to offer faster services and this is the avenue that European governments are paying attention to.
GAIA-X is a project by the German government aimed at this. Published in October 2019, the proposal discusses a federated approach to cloud computing built on European values to data protection to power a new wave of innovations.
On the other hand, American and Chinese services, built according to local approaches to digital rights, continue to grow market share. Not only in consumer tools and services but also in facial recognition and surveillance technology domains. CCTV monitoring in smart cities - more and more of which are being built around the world - is also powered by these services. Here’s a map of which countries rely on which surveillance technology.
Going forward
It is not unrealistic to expect that many companies, driven by change in customer attitudes, will choose one of the three models. In a world of interconnectedness, total data sovereignty is not going to be easy. However, European, American and Chinese companies are most likely to stick with their home grown “default” infrastructure. Startups and entrepreneurs in other countries will have to study the tradeoffs of each model and choose for themselves.