This post is also available in: Deutsch (German)
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
With the GDPR, the EU has created a law that leads to the imposition of data protection rules on countries that in no way correspond to their understanding of data protection. The EU wants to impose its data protection concept on the world. Most citizens of EU member states see themselves primarily as citizens of their country and not as part of an anonymous (EU) association. Data protection is historically, socially and socially shaped. When we get upset about the fact that there are states that are moving towards systematically categorising and classifying their citizens, we easily forget that we grew up in a social environment in which we only know repression, oppression or coercion to uniformity from books or the Internet. Comparability and measurability are unwords for us, although they reflect social reality. While at school we fight against grades and don’t want to measure ourselves (“everyone gets a prize”), in the social media the results of mouse clicks are hard rated. In systems in which the individual only emerges from the crowd if he has a high rating, data protection has only a minor meaning (“let’s give each other the maximum rating…”).
Despite a history of data breaches and everyday Big Data analyses, our (Swiss view) awareness of data protection is low. This has to do with the fact that we Swiss traditionally have little to fear and had from the state (“we are the state”). Studies show that where trust in the state is high, little importance is attached to personal data protection. So it is not surprising that things like the implantation of chips are socially acceptable, especially in the Scandinavian countries (in Sweden the number of “chipped” persons was around 3000, August 18). For the majority this is still unthinkable today. Nevertheless, the group of people who voluntarily expose themselves to digital transparency is growing steadily. How should society deal with the fact that a large proportion of the population squanders their personal data and thus actively opposes the sacrosanct principles of data protection? However you answer this question, the GDPR is only one way to protect people from themselves. However, it is in no way suitable for being used as a binding standard on a global level.
Is the citizen of a former communist country more sensitive when it comes to data protection?
