GDPR was brilliant, but not for why you think
GDPR Was Brilliant! And that brilliance has nothing to do with data privacy.
I am surprised at the number of people who have not noticed the brilliance of GDPR having less to do with Data Privacy and everything to do with leveling the playing field with US Tech Titans. So I thought I would write a concise statement on why.
What I Mean By Brilliance:
I am talking about the genius of the strategy. The use of GDPR as a tool to enforce Data Privacy is highly valuable, the right thing to do, and is relatively straightforward. The brilliance is in how it helped to tackle the dominance of US Tech.
The Dominance of US Tech:
US Tech Titans were ruling the internet, ruling data collection, and seemed unstoppable. The lead they had over most European tech companies was nearly insurmountable.
Leveling The Playing Field:
How do you help European tech companies compete? Put up barriers to the collection and usage of European data to help European companies in the guise of data privacy. It is a double win. You start to favor EU businesses dealing with EU customers and get improved data privacy as well.
Q: Who will I trust the most with EU regulations if I am an EU company or an EU citizen?
A: EU-based companies.
Q: Who will the world's companies trust the most if they are concerned with Data Privacy?
A: Companies based in the economic region that pioneered global privacy regulations...The EU.
How To Build A Moat
If you are familiar with Charlie Munger's discussions about building a moat around your business. GDPR is a moat, and this moat strategy can be applied to other industries, like the supply of materials such as aluminum (or aluminium in the EU and most of the world). Instead of adding tariffs, you add a regulatory burden that favors your economic area under the guise of meeting emissions requirements, such as requiring aluminum production to meet low pollution requirements that other competitive economic areas can't or won't meet.
Where Is This Going?
I see something similar possibly happening with ChatGPT if it starts to take the lion's share of what we currently consider "Internet Search." I will touch on this in my next post.
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