GDPR: A Catalyst for Innovation and Digital Sovereignty

GDPR establishes a fundamental principle: personal data belongs to individuals. This means that every European citizen can, at any time, request a copy of their data from any organization. This data is not limited to a name or address but includes all digital traces left during online activities: browsing history, consumption habits, social network interactions, geolocation, etc.

This right of access, if fully exercised, would allow everyone to regain control of their informational assets. And on a collective scale, it opens the way to a more balanced data economy, where value would no longer be concentrated in the hands of a few technological giants.

GDPR is not just a legal exercise: it requires technical capabilities. Too often, some actors strive to "simplify GDPR" by amending the text, without ever addressing the technology question. This stance is futile, even ridiculous, at a time when processing is massive and automated. It's not about simplifying the law, but about simplifying access to technology that enables compliance.

Portability, for example, requires that data be accessible, structured, and interoperable. This is primarily a technical requirement. A Spotify user should be able to transfer their playlists to another platform or share their preferences with an educational application. These uses are possible when rights are supported by concrete technological tools.

By lowering the entry barrier of data accumulation, GDPR enables fairer competition. If each individual can freely choose who they entrust their data to, emerging players can offer relevant services without starting from scratch. Data liquidity becomes a driver of economic dynamism.

This potential will only be exploited if the authorities themselves adopt this logic. It's time for authorities to integrate tools truly adapted to their missions: the technology exists. For GDPR to fully achieve its objectives, institutions like EDPS, EDPB, or national DPAs must adopt these concrete solutions in their control and support missions, to raise the standard and make rights truly applicable at scale.

Data governance often remains the preserve of lawyers, even though processing is computerized. It is therefore urgent to use tools that enable mapping, tracking, and automating rights management.

Solutions exist. These tools must be generalized, promoted by institutions, integrated into a public infrastructure logic.

Ready-to-use technologies exist today to effectively implement the rights provided by GDPR. The smaller the structure, the faster the implementation: it's in this context that initiatives like My Data Business play an essential role. By offering automatic mapping tools, processing visualization, and access rights management, these solutions allow both companies and institutions to achieve compliance without excessive complexity.

European agencies — EDPS, EDPB, national DPAs, and their counterparts — have a role to play: not by developing these technologies themselves, but by actively adopting them in their control and support missions. By using them, they raise the standard, set an example, and make compliance more accessible to the entire ecosystem.

We believe that GDPR is not a hindrance, but a historic opportunity. An opportunity to innovate, redistribute power, restore European digital sovereignty. At My Data Business, we have a simple and ambitious mission: make data governance accessible, automatic, and understandable, so that everyone — company, institution, or citizen — can exercise their rights without friction.

We develop concrete tools so that compliance is no longer experienced as a burden, but as a lever. Mapping data, visualizing processing, responding to access requests: all this should be as simple as sending an email.

We call on European institutions, national regulators, and innovators to join this movement. Together, we can build the infrastructure that will make GDPR fully operational. Together, we can make digital rights a lived reality.

GDPR is more than a legal text. It's a potential architecture for digital sovereignty and innovation. For it to fulfill its promises, we must stop caricaturing it as an abstract norm and make it an active infrastructure, supported by concrete technical means.

It's under this condition that Europe can transform its principles into economic, democratic, and technological power.