The General Data Protection Regulation though the lens of digital sovereignty
Abstract
This short contribution will present and discuss the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through the lens of ‘digital sovereignty. When high-ranking representatives of EU institutions endorsed digital sovereignty this has been interpreted as a signpost for a new-found assertiveness in EU digital policy. However, digital sovereignty is conceptually fuzzy and is used to animate a wide spectrum of geopolitical, normative, and industrial ambitions. In the context of the GDPR it makes sense to operationalize digital sovereignty as the ability of rules to assert authority in a global and interdependent digital ecosystem. Conceived this way, I will reflect on how the GDPR wields transnational capacity by design in the form of safeguards against inbound and outbound circumvention.
Digital sovereignty, GDPR, transfer of personal data, transnational capacity
Bibtex
Article{Irion2022,
title = {The General Data Protection Regulation though the lens of digital sovereignty},
author = {Irion, K.},
url = {https://www.ivir.nl/irion-gdpr-and-digital-sovereignty-11mar22/},
year = {0328},
date = {2022-03-28},
abstract = {This short contribution will present and discuss the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through the lens of ‘digital sovereignty. When high-ranking representatives of EU institutions endorsed digital sovereignty this has been interpreted as a signpost for a new-found assertiveness in EU digital policy. However, digital sovereignty is conceptually fuzzy and is used to animate a wide spectrum of geopolitical, normative, and industrial ambitions. In the context of the GDPR it makes sense to operationalize digital sovereignty as the ability of rules to assert authority in a global and interdependent digital ecosystem. Conceived this way, I will reflect on how the GDPR wields transnational capacity by design in the form of safeguards against inbound and outbound circumvention.},
keywords = {Digital sovereignty, GDPR, transfer of personal data, transnational capacity},
}