Shaping Europe’s Digital Future – The European Strategy for Data
This blog is part of a series on three important documents the European Commission (EC) released on February 19, 2020, to outline its digital strategy and policy objectives. TLDR: The European Strategy for Data The data strategy is part of the digital package the European Commission (EC) released in February. It lays out a framework for increasing data access and how the EU can help European businesses to capitalize on EU-generated data. The goal is to make the EU a [...]
No Code? No Problem!
To build a software or content company 20 years ago, you needed to design packaging, contract with disk duplicators, arrange distribution channels, set up order processing, handle shipping, and take care of hundreds of other logistical details. All that, in addition to building and marketing your product. Being in the software business became much simpler 12 years ago with the introduction of the Apple App Store, and subsequently Google Play and other online stores like the Amazon app store. Talented [...]
“Shaping Europe’s Digital Future” – Understanding the European Commission’s New Digital Strategy
This blog is part of a series on three important documents the European Commission (EC) released on February 19, 2020, to outline its digital strategy and policy objectives. TLDR: What You Need to Know The European Commission released a five-year roadmap entitled “Shaping Europe’s Digital Future” The Commission plans to maximize the benefits of digitization while preserving essential European values of “‘democracy, fairness, and inclusiveness” The roadmap covers a variety of areas, including investment, competition rules, tech education, platform regulation, [...]
Face-Off: Making Sense of the Facial Recognition Debate
As the debate surrounding facial recognition intensified in 2019, you could be forgiven for not being able to make sense of the cacophony. Not only is facial recognition itself a subset of the broader privacy discussion, but it brings to bear a diverse assortment of issues whose relevance depends on the technology’s use, objective, and target audience in each instance. Smartphone facial recognition differs from police use of facial recognition, which differs from Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) use of [...]
Time for a Check-Up! Checking the Pulse of Healthcare Data Privacy Bills
Today, the law of the land concerning the privacy of individuals’ health information is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and more specifically, the HIPAA Privacy Rule. But one need only take a cursory look at the name of the underlying law (Health Insurance Portability…) to glean that it was never meant to serve as the central healthcare privacy mechanism. Indeed, because HIPAA’s primary function is to provide guardrails for those handling health insurance claims, its rules orient [...]
Announcing A New Blog Series: Takeaways from the European Commission’s Digital Strategy Documents
Because good things come in threes, the European Commission (EC) released no fewer than three important documents related to its plans to make Europe “fit for the digital age” on February 19, 2020. These documents include a Communication entitled “Shaping Europe’s Digital Future”, the “European Strategy for Data” and the highly anticipated white paper “On Artificial Intelligence - A European approach to excellence and trust”. In our effort to help app developers, innovators, and digital small and medium enterprises (SMEs) [...]