The EU is now in the stages of rewriting history again. New laws such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the Digital Services Act (DSA), the AI Act, and the Data Act will throttle competition responsibilities and offer a fairer data framework relating to Big Tech firms, said Schaake.
GDPR Was a Breakthrough Privacy Moment
The EU GDPR was a milestone in the protection of data, which was instated four years ago, Schaake said. The regulation has paved the way for a new EU direction when it comes to curbing the dominance of the Big Tech leviathans. The General Data Protection Regulation is “the toughest privacy and security law in the world” the official GDPR portal states. The regulation, relating to the targeting or collection of data belonging to the EU population (but having a global effect), was put into effect on May 25th, 2018. The main objective is to impose “obligations onto organizations everywhere” in the form of extremely harsh fines against anyone who violates the GDPR’s privacy and security standards. The law was born from the 1950 European Convention on Human rights, which states that all people have the right to respect regarding their private and family lives, their homes, and their correspondence. “With the GDPR, Europe is signaling its firm stance on data privacy and security at a time when more people are entrusting their personal data with cloud services and breaches are a daily occurrence” GDPR.eu states.
A Hardy Group of New Laws is Coming
2022 promises to be a landmark year for data policy regarding users, businesses, and platforms. A group of substantial laws aiming at balancing Big Tech dominance is on the horizon, attempting to remove drawn-out antitrust lawsuits and not shattering monopolistic companies. This list comprises the DMA, the DSA, as well as the AI and Data Acts, of which the former is up first. The upcoming DMA should prevent gatekeeper companies from abusing their market dominance and “not simply bring them to court for antitrust violations” Schaake underlined. These new interoperability measures might clash with security measures like end-to-end encryption, something WhatsApp already implemented between users, WhatsApp’s chief Will Cathcart added. However, this issue should be easily resolved with full API data protection and bridges for encrypted data, Schaake said.
Challenges for Both Sides
Major “gatekeeper” firms are heavily criticizing the new rules, which will be tough on them while decreasing their dominance. For these reasons, the DMA has already experienced unprecedented lobbying with Google, Microsoft, and Apple alone having spent 20 million Euros to influence it. For instance, lobbyists have already pitted existing EU privacy achievements against the upcoming DMA, using one key EU achievement against another Schaake added. The current EU discussions about interoperability and encryption, such as between the GDPR and DMA acts “already hints at a major challenge the EU is still to face,” Schaake added. For EU regulators and lawmakers looking to better balance the dominating attitude of Big Tech firms, data regulation and protection laws will have to work well together, Schaake said. On the other hand, better privacy protection should bring a competitive advantage to firms, Schaake added. For more information about general data regulation laws, check out our full guide on complying with the GDPR. If you are interested in Big Tech user agreements and privacy policies, check out our full guide to the fine print.
