Data Sharing in the Digitised Economy

Data lies at the core of most digital business models and has the potential to vastly improve products and services across industries, or even to create entirely new ones. For many current challenges – in areas such as mobility, energy, environment or agriculture – innovation based on data can offer impactful solutions. Presently, the discussion focuses on unlocking and facilitating data sharing, with proposals ranging from granting free access to exclusive data rights for all data categories.

Bitkom offers suggestions for accomodating the protection of personal data, intellectual property and trade secrets while simulating digital innovation, fair competition in digital markets and building a data economy. Bitkom is calling for 1) a structured and differentiated debate depending on the type of data, its intended use and content; 2) building on existing rules; 3) using contractual agreements; 4) exercising caution with regard to data access.