European Digital Strategy Unveiled, What That Means for Google Owner Alphabet, Facebook, and Amazon

#Data is at the? of digital transformation. It will change our societies, our economies and our industries.

Unveiling today, together with Margrethe @vestager, Europe's Digital Future, we are committed to ensuring that technology serves #citizens, and not the other way around. pic.twitter.com/Z6LLNrzpy7

— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) February 19, 2020

In Breton's own words "Our society is generating a huge wave of industrial and public data, which will transform the way we produce, consume and live. Europe has everything it takes to lead the ‘big data’ race, and preserve its technological sovereignty, industrial leadership and economic competitiveness to the benefit of European consumers."

Some of the points the White Paper proposes are as follows: 

• Launch a debate about when it is justified to use facial recognition for remote biometric identification.
• Establish the right regulatory framework on data governance, its access and reuse between businesses, between businesses and government, and within administrations.
• Launch sector-specific actions to build European data spaces in for instance industrial manufacturing, the green deal, mobility or health.
• Ensure AI systems in health, policing, or transport, are transparent, traceable and guarantee human oversight.

The final draft will be complete and available before the end of the year. The hope is to establish a balance for European companies competing in the digital space who are up against mega-companies in China, and the U.S., for example. 

European Commission Unveils Strategy For Digital Future: Europe launches ambitious digital strategy as it… https://t.co/HHKPBJWe3R #infosec

— IT Security News - www.itsecuritynews.info (@IT_securitynews) February 19, 2020

As Reuters wrote, the Commission will also address "complaints about the power wielded by large online platforms" and is thinking about introducing rules to "stop these companies from unilaterally imposing conditions for access, and use of data, or benefiting from this in a disproportionate manner."

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And the Wall Street Journal believes that more restrictions on machine-learning-enabled technologies will come into place, which will go from self-driving cars all the way to closed-circuit television cameras and medical equipment.