Data Privacy and Strategic Standardization – It’s a familiar plot line for those of us in the standards business. It has to do with the use of standards and regulations as a tool for market manipulation. It’s sometimes done in committee work far from the public eye, but with data privacy it’s right up front. The case in point: Data protection rules being put forward by the European Union. It was reported in the Wall Street Journal yesterday and certainly got my attention!
What’s most interesting to me is that the chief negotiator for the European Parliament made the situation clear: Jan Philipp Albrecht expects the data protection law to have a beneficial effect on European web companies equal to the impact of the adoption of GSM had on telecommunications companies back in the 1990’s.
For those of you who remember, at that time Qualcomm owned the CDMA chip market. Everything was great until the Europeans decided to standardize on GSM, hoping to push the U.S. company out of the market. While Qualcomm is still doing just fine, the European move to GSM proved a tremendous boon to such companies as Nokia and Ericsson. Albrecht specifically referred to this incident recently.
No wonder U.S. Internet companies are starting to spend so much time and effort in Europe! There’s no doubt that the EU regulators are looking a Google and other U.S. Internet giants with an eye to the competitive environment. And how could such regulations skew the marketplace in favor of the European market?
As regulators there say, a move to promote products and services already being developed in Europe specifically to address these new restrictions will likely put European companies ahead of others. Should these type of regulations become global, it could be a competitive disadvantage for the large U.S. Internet giants.
In a perfect world, standards would be ruled by technology. But in our real one, politics and financial advantage play a huge role and standards developers and users shouldn’t forget it. If you are not paying attention to the political forces that shape your industry, you stand a good chance of being blindsided.
As part of your standards program, don’t forget to pay attention not only to what’s impacting your company now, but what’s brewing for the future. You’ll want to capture information from those in your company who participate in standards work. And you’ll want to get feedback from staff familiar with the various markets you’re selling in. There’s always someone looking to find a way to get some of what you have! And it may be happening where you least expect it.
For standards and services to support your use of standards, make Document Center your first choice. You can order standards online at our webstore, www.document-center.com. And you can contact our staff by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com) with any questions or orders you may have. Make us your Standards Experts!
