In a survey conducted by Taloustutkimus and Sitra among the general public and businesses in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and France, two reports have been published. These studies focused on the use of digital services and the future of European companies in the data economy in 2021. In particular, France is said to be in the lead among countries wishing to exploit the data collected daily in a responsible manner.

In order to carry out the first survey, more than 8,000 participants, i.e. about 2,000 people per country, answered questions about digital services. For the second survey, several companies from these four countries were interviewed about the data economy.

A survey on the data economy and the use of digital services

The surveys reveal that increasing regulation (30%) and a lack of business expertise (25%) around the data economy are the two major obstacles to progress in this sector. In France, regulation is seen as the main reason for the lack of development of the data economy (36%), as it is in Germany (31%) or the Netherlands (32%). Other important obstacles are mentioned in the document such as gaps in a company’s technical capabilities (22%) or the fact that customers did not recognize the full potential of such services (23%). The latter was the predominant concern of 31% of the Finnish companies surveyed.

At present, only a few large multinationals are massively exploiting the data collected by correlating it with daily use of digital services. The citizens questioned want to know which companies exploit this data in a responsible way, and which tend to do so less. A request that comes from the fact that the willingness of these companies to adopt this kind of responsible approach is declining.

48% of survey participants believe that the data economy can offer a competitive advantage now or in the future. Compared to the similar survey conducted two years ago, the figure is down by a significant 10%. To counterbalance with a positive element, 72% of the companies surveyed have made a change to their business models in the last two years.

French companies on the data economy and competitive advantage

For several years now, initiatives have been launched in Europe to develop a fair data economy together. One of the projects that can be noted is GAIA-X, whose objective is to propose a European data infrastructure that would facilitate their exchange and the interoperability of services while guaranteeing an ethical approach. France, together with Germany, is the pioneer country in the programme.

According to the two surveys, French companies would, in general, have the most positive attitude towards future business profitability through data sharing. 58% of them believe that they have already gained or will gain benefits in the future, while 24% of French organisations believe that there is a possibility that they could.

Business and consumer interest in a “Fair Data” label

Fair data” is part of the context of big data, open science and internet accessibility. We speak of “fair data” as soon as it is possible to store, design or present databases in such a way that they are easy to find, accessible, interoperable and reusable. If we take the first letter of each of these four criteria, we find the acronym “FAIR”, which also means “fair” in English. Creating a label around this concept would allow us to know whether the data used or designed by institutions fall within the framework described above.

In Germany, consumers are clearly interested in the creation of a “Fair Data” label (75%). In France, too, although the figure is somewhat lower (71%). This figure has increased compared to the last survey, since “only” 61% of French citizens were interested in a label being set up.

However, there is a gap with companies, especially in France. Their interest in setting up such a label is decreasing year after year, as the survey proves. 44% of French companies consider the label to be interesting. This figure is 9% lower than in the surveys conducted two years ago, although the result remains above the average of the four countries surveyed (41%). This overall statistic has also dropped since in 2019, 45% of companies considered the Fair Data label to be important.

European citizens’ approach to digital services: a data protection issue

According to the survey conducted by Sitra, European citizens find it difficult to understand the terms of use of digital services, whose terms are far too long and not very popular. For example, 57% of respondents consider that data protection relies too much on how careful they are on the internet.

Of all age groups, 18-24 year olds have the most positive attitudes towards the collection of personal information by digital service providers. They are also more likely to disclose their data for public interest purposes such as environmental protection or healthcare. 37% of young adults feel that online privacy no longer really exists, compared to an average of 31%. The younger you are, the more digital services you consume, according to the study. Child safety online is an issue that affects more than a third of participants (37%).

30% of those surveyed would like to see an authority regulate the use of data more strictly. However, there are differences from country to country: in Finland, 37% of citizens are in favour, compared to only 23% of Germans. Finally, almost half of the respondents said that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) had not affected their online behaviour in any way, a finding that should not be overlooked.

Translated from Le Sitra a enquêté sur l’utilisation des services numériques et l’exploitation de l’économie des données en Europe