In its Opinion, the EESC welcomes the Data Act Regulation and highlights the need to implement it without any discrimination against people who have difficulty accessing the internet or data. The EESC believes that the protection of personal data, digital identity and privacy should be considered fundamental aspects of data governance directly linked to respect for human dignity and fundamental rights.

The EESC considers it important to guarantee respect for safety and ethical standards, conditions for data functionality, cybersecurity procedures and the proper storage of data on EU territory, on the assumption that individuals should be in control of the data they generate. This is also crucial to economic competitiveness. As the administration of this huge volume of data will consume a substantial amount of energy, the EESC recommends that a request for entities in charge of data storage to use mainly energy from renewable resources be included in the Act.

The EESC also states that it believes that ensuring fair competition and a fair distribution of costs and added value within the data supply chain including all actors is relevant and important.

The EESC suggests enlarging the scope of the proposed Act to cover all physical products that obtain, generate or collect data on their performance, use or environment, and that communicate that data via a publicly available electronic communications service.

The EESC believes that users and data recipients should have unhindered access to data, which is essential to the functioning, repairing or servicing of connected products and related services. This includes all raw data and metadata but also other relevant processed, refined or aggregated data. To read the Opinion in full, click here.