Data Nationalism Could Hobble the World’s Progress

Context: With the data now synonymous with the national interest, we will see a protectionist environment which would not bode well for the international trade a set of the unified rules are devised.

Reasons for the rise of data nationalism/protectionism: 

• No compromise over data privacy by the European Union (EU):

• • • The EU’s top court struck down the Privacy Shield used by big techs to transfer data across the Atlantic amid fears of surveillance by the United States (US).
    • Earlier it also struck down the Safe Harbor after increased EU activism over Snowden’s revelation of US’s cyber spying.

• Potential surveillance:

• • • The US has secretly given the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) more powers to launch cyberattacks against countries like China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
    • China began censoring and surveillance even before the Snowden’s episode.

• Dependence of Manual Labour in Data generation: Although Artificial Intelligence and advanced algorithms have made the data generation process automated, manual processes are still needed:

• Indian Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry is still alive as it is engaged in less repetitive tasks that are less amenable to automation.
• Human Beings act as filters to keep horrific videos off the social media sites.
• Uncoordinated National Moves: Countries are likely to correspond with non-concurrence.
• E.g. ‘Osaka Track’ formed after G-20 tried to thrash global rules coming in the way of “free flow of data with trust”, to bring all nations on the same page.

Conclusion: After some years of protracted negotiations we might see the equivalent of the World Trade Organization, which was set up for the trade of goods, come into being for the information age.