Data is considered the treasure of the 21st century. Tech companies like Google and Meta have helped them to dominate the world, and secret services like the NSA stockpile them in large quantities to get the most accurate information possible about upcoming threats. But in Germany, the treasure trove of data often remains untapped.
The federal government now wants to change that with a new national strategy. The cornerstones of the data strategy are exclusively available to the Handelsblatt. They are to be presented at the federal government’s digital summit, the annual major digital political event in Berlin, which takes place on Thursday and Friday.
The promise of the document: “The federal government’s new national data strategy lays the foundation for prosperity and trust in the digital data economy and ensures our competitiveness.” The government wants to start with three central points.
A lot of valuable data is currently lying unused on the servers of the federal authorities. The federal government promises to change that: “We are opening state databases and making state data usable in a user-friendly manner,” says the paper.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
One should “Duty of the federal government to actively publish certain categories of data” be introduced. The Freedom of Information Act should become a federal transparency law.
>> Read here: We finally have to raise the treasure trove of data
Besides, there should be one Legal Entitlement to Open Data – freely accessible data that can be used, disseminated and reused by everyone. All federal data that does not contain sensitive information and is therefore not subject to “legitimate access restrictions” should be made accessible to business, science and civil society via the GovData portal.
Existing portals that provide open data on traffic, weather or the environment, for example, should also be better linked.
One element for the secure exchange of data could be so-called “data trustees”. In this model, a trusted authority, a kind of middleman, steps in between those who share data and those who receive them. This is to ensure the protection of personal data.
These are to be provided as “technical and organizational tools”, for example to ensure the data sovereignty of companies. Such data trustees could possibly even act as central elements of a data economy. The federal government is examining whether the state could carry out a corresponding certification for the data trustees.
Investments in data should be worthwhile
For companies that invest money in data generation and processing, it should be ensured that they can also generate a return on the investment. The business with the data should also be worthwhile financially. For this to succeed, for example, the protection of intellectual property should be strengthened, especially when private data is accessed. This is intended to strengthen the “willingness to invest” for companies. An incentive to make your own data accessible and monetize it.
According to the federal government, sharing and using data together promises “considerable pro-competitive and innovative potential”. To ensure that this can also be used with legal certainty, the federal government wants to review competition law and adjust it if necessary. The sharing of data should also be made easier in the law on the general terms and conditions.
A major factor of uncertainty when dealing with data is currently the strict legal requirements, for example due to the General Data Protection Regulation. The federal government wants to advocate for this “simple, clear and coherent rules” deploy.
>> Read here: “Brake on economic activity and innovation”: economy disappointed with the digital strategy of the traffic light
In addition, “model contracts and model contract clauses” are intended to facilitate the legal handling of data and support companies and consumers. In addition to these model contracts, best-practice examples in dealing with data protection and data processing should also be made accessible.
Data formats should become more compatible
Another problem so far has been that data formats are often not compatible with one another or that data exchange is not yet possible from a technical point of view. This is where standards and norms should help to unify.
Yes, as the federal government specifies: These should not be “misused to crowd out the market”, but should be openly oriented in order to ensure fair competition on the data markets.
The consent to cookies, i.e. the storage of individual user data on websites, which is often annoying for consumers, is also to be simplified. To this end, Germany wants to submit a proposal to the EU that is intended to “relieve users of the many individual decisions”.
More: Industry warns of “massive restrictions” from the AI Act