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ISSUE: 2/2024

  • Volume 28
  • Number 2
  • 2024

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Studia Europejskie –
Studies in European Affairs

ISSN: 1428-149X
e-ISSN: 2719-3780

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The Monetisation of Personal Data in EU Strategies: The Hoda/Google Case

Antonella Correnti

Keywords:
 Competition and Market Authority European Data Management Monetisation of Personal Data Studia Europejskie Studia Europejskie – Studies in European Affairs

Abstract

In July 2022, the Competition and Market Authority opened, on Hoda s.r.l.’s recommendation, an investigation (Competition and Market Authority, 2022) against Google for its alleged abuse of its dominant position and for having hindered interoperability in sharing the data of its users with other operators. Hoda itself is a start-up, active in the intermediation of personal data through the Weople app; natural persons who register with the app delegate Hoda for the collection of their data held by other companies, which are then archived in a digital wallet.

The aforementioned proceeding concluded with an undertaking, with communication dated 28th February 2023, by the Alphabet company, to develop new, automatic tools that allow network users to download and export their data from Google to a third-party app. The case leads one to reflect on the consequences and challenges that Europe is called upon to face in managing the phenomenon of the governance and the monetisation of personal data.

The institution of data portability, to the extent that it facilitates the circulation of data and the mobility of users, offers alternative operators the possibility of exerting competitive pressure on tech giants such as Google, which assert their dominance on the creation of ecosystems based on the management of potentially unlimited quantities of data, functional to one’s business model.

The topic arouses particular interest because if, on the one hand, it paves the way for the monetisation of personal data, on the other, it leads one to reflect, as highlighted in the past by the President of the Guarantor Authority for the protection of personal data, on the consequences in terms of a re-feudalisation of social relationships that the remuneration of consent to the treatment of one’s data would risk determining.

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DOI: 10.33067/SE.2.2024.11

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Language: English

Pages: 203-216

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Correnti, A. (2024) "The Monetisation of Personal Data in EU Strategies: The Hoda/Google Case". Studia Europejskie – Studies in European Affairs, 2/2024, pp. 203-216. DOI: 10.33067/SE.2.2024.11

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