We see it near every day, politicians and sometimes business leaders, equating kinetic warfare with digital warfare or hacking. For those of us being old enough to notice, we have come a long way since those Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) connections transmitting our notions via the old ARPANet. But as the systems evolved so did the criminals and their desire for easy money.

If you live in the European Union (EU), you are very close to all of the dangers in the world, and although though there is an ocean between the United States and these threats, all that water gets a bit smaller each year. In the 1940’s we were a month away from kinetic threats, today it is only a few minutes. As with any digital threat, the world is smaller – about 30-50 milliseconds.

This smaller world was recognized in the 60s and 70s within the financial markets first with the FedWire system where bank transfer of funds changed from Cash on hand (there was a 100,000 bill for this purpose read more to the use of a system where much like an email, funds were (and still are) moved from bank to bank and from the Federal Reserve to/from every chartered bank. With electrons becoming dollars the Fed has done a good job with their regulatory departments of managing the risks of these systems.

In the United States, the responsibility and ownership of Personal information is both the responsibility and the property of the Custodian (your employer, vendors that you conduct business with, etc.) these same custodians have a different responsibility within the EU. Providing the average consumer with more power.

Within the EU the ownership of personal information is the person that is described by the information. Yes, you own your information. This is an interesting difference. As an example – if you lived in Germany, you could demand that a company such as Google or Amazon to forget you – or erase and verify that you have been erased. Here in the US this is not the case. The custodians such as Google and Amazon when asked to erase or forget you may ignore you.

I am not sure which model is better. I believe that it is a function of the situation – if you embarrassingly posted something on Facebook, Instagram, or Tic Toc and it is found within the first page of your individual search results, you might not think this is a good thing.

In conclusion, the US with all the power is centered constitutionally with the individuals. In the EU the government contains the power and allots into the individuals. However, with information the roles are reversed. EU citizens have control over their data within Non-Government-Entities (NGE), whereas in the US we have much less control over our personal information. Perhaps a national right to be forgotten movement is something to consider?