Editorial Board
Europe’s Wrongheaded Data Rules
They’re expensive, burdensome and all too likely to impede innovation.
A leap in the dark.
Photographer: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek
This month, the European Union will embark on an expansive effort to give people more control over their data online. Known as the General Data Protection Regulation, it’s ambitious, well-intentioned and largely wrongheaded. As it comes into force, Europe should be mindful of unintended consequences — and open to change when things go wrong.
No one could say the GDPR lacks purpose. At more than 260 pages long, it articulates dozens of goals in the service of “a strong and more coherent data protection framework.”