Event Recap: SXSW 2025
"We regret to inform you that a vendor was hacked, exposing our customers' personal information." It’s a message that has become all too familiar as data breaches shift from possibility to inevitability. At SXSW 2025, ACT | The App Association hosted a powerhouse panel to dissect the growing crisis of data breaches and underscore the critical role of encryption in safeguarding our digital lives. Our panel, IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED: Data Breaches and Encryption, highlighted how these breaches disproportionately impact [...]
Digital Tax Follies: The Importance and Understanding of Sound Tax Policies in Europe
ACT | The App Association’s small business members are the leading edge of innovation in the ever-evolving digital economy. Governments are racing to create mechanisms to measure and tax the value of digital activity. Unfortunately, the rapid shifting of tax laws and policy globally has complicated small businesses’ ability to compete and grow in digital markets. Regions worldwide are exploring ways to capture tax revenue from digital services, often through digital service taxes (DSTs) targeting major tech firms. Simultaneously, [...]
EU Lawmakers’ DMA Petition to DoJ and Commerce Deserves Quick Dismissal
We recently highlighted a bright spot in the otherwise dismal outlook for global digital marketplace regulation. Specifically, as governments around the world consider Digital Markets Act (DMA)-style regulatory frameworks, we have highlighted the way that these regulations harm small innovators globally. President Trump has focused on another aspect, calling out DMA as designed to disadvantage American competitors. Shortly after that, House Judiciary Committee (HJC) leaders sent a letter to the European Commission taking aim at DMA’s discriminatory purposes in [...]
The App Association to Host Panel at SXSW on Data Breaches and Encryption
Austin, TX – This week, ACT | App Association leadership and members will host a SXSW panel discussion on data breaches and encryption. The panel will be held on March 12, 2025, at 2:30 CT at the Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon K. The panel, featuring App Association General Counsel Graham Dufault, several ACT member small business entrepreneurs, and data privacy advocates, will explore the vital role of cyber-hygiene in mitigating risk and protecting encryption as a piece of critical [...]
Why Did Brazil’s CADE Exclude Small Business Developers from its Digital Platform Regulation Hearing?
Recently, Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) held a public hearing to discuss digital platform regulation—an issue with enormous implications for the ACT | The App Association community both in and outside of Brazil. The App Association has worked with governments around the world to bring small business innovator viewpoints to the fore on regulation proposals to ensure that the platforms’ key features that have propelled our community’s immense growth and job creation remain intact: cost-effective access to [...]
The EU’s DMA at One Year: Are SMEs Better Off?
One year into the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Union’s ambitious effort to regulate competition in the digital economy, startups are seeing more challenges than benefits. The DMA was introduced with the promise of ‘levelling the playing field’ by reining in more dominant technology companies. In practice, however, it has created new barriers for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), adding compliance burdens, disrupting established distribution models, and creating uncertainty in an already challenging funding environment. [...]