The reason for this is, of course, the European General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR for short. Much quoted, much discussed and now to be experienced live and in color at a trade fair. Of course, the topic was not only hotly debated during the business card exchange. Even after the deadline of May 25, 2018, many companies are still in the process of implementing the new regulation. The uncertainty surrounding the topic is also reflected in the fear of warning letters from lawyers and the associated fines.

However, this fear also shows something else, namely that a great deal of fraud has been and is being committed with data. The best examples of this are, of course, the various Facebook scandals. And these in turn show how important qualified data is for politics, business and research. With the right data pool and the right analysis tools, election results can be predicted, consumer purchasing behavior can be influenced and products can be tailored to the end consumer.

Let's stay with data analysis: many visions of the future are only possible through data, or rather through the interpretation of the data provided. Artificial intelligence is a good example of this. At the moment, we are still at the beginning of this promising technology. For example, systems are being trained to independently identify cats in pictures using tens of thousands of reference images. The Internet serves as a data pool here, as millions of cats are immortalized in a wide variety of poses and situations in pictures.

In the industrial sector, the internet will no longer be able to serve as a data pool; the data here is too specific and protected by data protection regulations. So how can a company or a country take on a pioneering role if legislation regulates the use of data? This was precisely the topic discussed by members of the press during an expert talk with Kuka. David Fuller, Chief Technology Officer at Kuka Robotics, put it in a nutshell. He said that it is not necessarily the country or company with the best specialists that will gain a lead in artificial intelligence, but the one with the best access to usable data. At the moment, the USA still has the best access, as there are hardly any efforts to protect data like in Europe and to some extent in China.

To put it bluntly, data protection could stand in the way of technological leadership. On the other hand, it protects our personal rights, among other things. However, one thing should not be forgotten in the whole discussion: Ultimately, it is also up to each individual to handle their own data and the data entrusted to them responsibly.