EU defeats personal data after defeating personal data

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"We are not late, on the contrary! This industrial data war is starting now and Europe will be its main battlefield", said Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, in The echoes February 17, 2020. These first words were a taste of The roadmap sure "the European data strategy"presented by the European Commission on February 19, 2020.

The objective of the European executive is to create a single data market in which each private or public actor can draw to create goods or services. "Between the lines, we understand that the European Commission wants to fight on industrial data because Europe lost the personal data war", analyzes Etienne Drouard, lawyer specializing in new technologies law and former member of the CNIL, contacted by The Digital Factory. Indeed, Europe has never succeeded in bringing up large technological companies capable of competing with the American (GAFAM) or Chinese (BATX) technological giants. But the Old Continent is not devoid of industrial jewels: Airbus, Alstom, Nestle, Peugeot, Sanofi, Thales… "This industrial data is the data produced through production, service or industry tools", specifies the lawyer.

2 billion euros for the sovereign cloud

The European Commission's plan is structured around four actions. The first is the creation of a legislative framework which will determine "the context and will allow lively, dynamic and vigorous ecosystems to developr ". The institution plans to lay down rules to facilitate the use of data in goods and services. The second lever concerns investment in European accommodation infrastructure. During the period 2021-2027, the Commission will invest in "a high impact project"relating to European data spaces and the cloud.

He will finance "infrastructures, data sharing tools, architectures and governance mechanisms for thriving ecosystems for data sharing and artificial intelligence"She said. The executive calls on member states and industry to co-invest in this project which could achieve"total funding of around 4 to 6 billion euros", in which he plans to participate up to 2 billion euros."The EU must reduce its technological dependence on strategic infrastructure", notes the Commission, which advocates strong digital sovereignty.

The third action concerns the role of SMEs and start-ups in this new ecosystem. "Data is an important asset in this context, since launching or expanding a data-driven business doesn't require a lot of capital ", notes the Commission. Investment funds will help these players to benefit from better access to data so that they do not remain in the hands of the behemoths.

Finally, the roadmap encourages development "of common European spaces"in strategic economic sectors and areas of public interest. These will be areas where the use of data will have a"systemic impact on the entire ecosystem and on the citizen". The aim is to create vast data reserves which will be supplemented by policies which stimulate the use of this information. In total, nine data spaces will be created for the manufacturing industry, the environment, mobility, health, finance, energy, agriculture, public administration and the education system (skills and training).

Open … but not too much

But the EU is aware that this new ecosystem will have to work with international players. "Building on the robust regulatory environment of the single market, the EU has a vested interest in leading and supporting international data cooperation, developing global standards and creating an environment in which economic development and technology can thrive, in strict compliance with EU law", defends the Commission. But it immediately indicates that European companies are increasingly faced with obstacles"unwarranted"and digital restrictions in third countries. It will therefore ensure"particularly protect"and to assert the rights, duties and interests of Europeans and businesses, in particular as regards data protection, security and fair and reliable market practices.

What articulation with the GDPR?

For the lawyer Etienne Drouard, the regulation of this new set of data could prove to be very complicated because it raises questions of conformity with the GDPR. "Can the same information from your phone be both personal and industrial data?", he wonders. If this is the case, two principles will come into conflict: the protection of privacy and the free flow of data."Commissioner Thierry Breton will have to roll up his sleeves and not leave the details of the right to technicians, otherwise we will have layers of regulation", fears the lawyer.

This extra layer of complexity would be relatively easy for large companies to overcome, but how will SMEs do for whom GDPR has already been an expensive and complex step to take? "We may gain industrial strength but we will lose in size of company capable of moving in such a complex environment", worries Etienne Drouard.

Open data: a fantasy?

A second problem arises: how to push the big French industries to share their data? Unlike some digital giants that exploit the information of their users, industrial data concerns the industries themselves. A problem exacerbated in sensitive sectors such as defense, energy, aeronautics … And in this race, SMEs risk being quickly penalized. Because they will gain a lot from being able to use the data of large companies, but will not have much to offer in return. No solution has yet been put forward by the European Commission to resolve this imbalance. The next few months will therefore be crucial.

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