3 Dimensions of Digital Sovereignty

Digital sovereignty has become an important topic for individuals as well as a strategic issue for countries and businesses, allowing them to operate in an environment that they trust and can control. This necessitates technology that is not overly reliant on third parties, where there is a risk of misuse of trust or non-compliance.

In this session, we will explore 3 dimensions of digital sovereignty related to identity:

• Sovereignty of the Individual: The need to protect the individual has triggered privacy laws around the world, like GDPR. Providing end users with more control is now taken one step further with the adoption of the so-called "Self-Sovereign identity (SSI)" and "identity wallets." With SSI, users are in powerful control of their personal data, resulting in a privacy-first user experience.
• Geopolitical Sovereignty: According to geopolitical sovereignty, data about citizens is subject to the laws and governance of the nation or state to which they belong. As data and the behavior of people become more valuable for countries, the transfer of data is regulated by laws like the US Cloud Act and GDPR. Compliance with cross-border data transfers is becoming more important than ever. 
• Organisational Sovereignty: Organizations want to protect the interests of their employees, gig workers, customers, and business ecosystem. They also have to comply with multiple data sovereignty laws in various countries (for example, Schrems II, CCPA, LGPD, and so on). This leads to questions like, "Where is my data?" "Who has access?" and "Who holds the keys?" The more global organizations are, the more complex this process is due to the numerous local regulations they have to follow.