Mapping people’s movements can be an invaluable first step in addressing a wide range of pressing societal challenges. A recent example has been the urgent need to track people’s movements out of Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion, so emergency response agencies and aid groups can manage the logistics of allocating limited resources to the regions that need them most. Location signals from call records, mobile phone applications, and other such data can be aggregated for this purpose—painting a population-level map of human mobility.

Europe
Private firms face a number of challenges that limit their willingness and ability to share mobility data. The government’s role should be to coordinate the behavior of individuals, companies, and researchers toward social good.
There are multiple opportunities to advance solutions to major societal challenges by fostering transatlantic cooperation in biotech policy. But developing and applying them will require a return to science-based regulation that advances safety while enabling, not deterring innovation.
Rob and Jackie sat down with Denis Redonnet, the EU’s chief trade enforcement officer, to discuss the opportunities and challenges for the new U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council and the broader implications for trade policies in the United States, the EU, and in the World Trade Organization.
Econometric analysis using scientific records from East German intelligence informants versus measurements of total factor productivity showed a statistically significant negative relationship between industrial espionage and the gap in productivity between East and West Germany.
Over the last few years, many algorithm-driven companies in the digital economy have been investigated, prosecuted and fined, mostly for allegedly unfair algorithm design. Legislative proposals aim at regulating the way algorithms shape competition. Consequently, a so-called “algorithmic antitrust” theory and practice have also emerged.
Despite domestic presidential elections in April, the EU’s French Presidency will be critical for adopting the Digital Markets Act in ways that minimize harmful unintended consequences.
As the United States and the European Union continue to work on building back better the transatlantic relationship in the coming year, they should make resolving data flows a top priority.
Conference Report: The measures stipulated in the DMA do not match its calls for strengthening of the internal market, more competition, and innovation.
Commerce Secretary Raimondo must be applauded for voicing concern about the EU’s proposed Digital Markets Act—not only for warning about the harm it will do to U.S. tech companies, U.S. workers, and the U.S. economy, but also for highlighting the considerable competitive gains that the DMA will grant Chinese tech rivals.
This article analyzes the problematic provisions in the proposed update to SecNumCloud.
The Digital Markets Unit does a disservice to the United Kingdom’s legal tradition and economic future precisely when the country is at historical post-Brexit crossroads.
After a shaky lead up, the first U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) meeting in Pittsburgh got the TTC off the starting blocks, but that was the easiest part. The hard work lies ahead in traversing the obstacle course and getting to the finish line. Officials need to show progress in bringing the post-summit joint statement (and its ten working groups (WG)) to life before TTC principals reconvene again in the spring of 2022.
The EU and the U.S. need to address the real technology competitiveness challenge, which is China.
Banning personalized ads would threaten about €6 billion of income for the European app economy—a sector that employs 1.5 million people in the EU.
Cloud computing is essential for innovation and competitiveness, but France is lagging behind in its cloud adoption. To catch up, it would be more efficient and effective for France to protect consumers and promote competition with industry-led guidelines instead of rigid and onerous regulations such as the proposed Digital Markets Act.
ITIF's Center for Data Innovation hosted a panel discussion exploring how European businesses use digital advertising to generate growth, the structure of Europe’s market for online ads, and the contributions of targeted ads to the EU’s digital transformation.
Allies and partners like the United States, the EU, the United Kingdom, and Canada should avoid destabilizing trade frictions that threaten to derail much-needed climate progress and instead work toward a collaborative climate innovation club.
There is something even more important in French economic policy than anti-American techlash: a national industrial policy dedicated to nurturing “national champions” of EU tech policy.
ITIF's Center for Data Innovation hosted a discussion about the ins and outs of Article 22, its purpose, its flaws, and whether it is fit for purpose in the digital age. The outputs of the discussion will be fed back to the Minister for Digital and Culture as part of the Government’s formal consultation for the new National Data Strategy.
Most EU policymakers don’t understand that the way to compete with American tech giants is not to take them on directly, but to rely on Schumpeterian competition.
Whether the U.S. and EU succeed in rebuilding the transatlantic relationship holds broad implications, because the alternative—strained engagement between major trading partners—would help fragment the digital economy and give a strategic gift to China.
As the Biden administration works with its EU counterparts through the new U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC), it should hold firm in defending the superior U.S. innovation system. To that end, U.S. negotiators must first clarify their positions on at least four strategic questions.
ITIF's Center for Data Innovation argued the framework should encourage responsible adoption and use of the technology to benefit society, provide guardrails that address potential harms, and foster growth and innovation in the European digital economy.
The AIA will cost the European economy €31 billion over the next five years and reduce AI investments by almost 20 percent. A European SME that deploys a high-risk AI system will incur compliance costs of up to €400,000 which would cause profits to decline by 40 percent.