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I recently logged back into an online events platform which I had not used for a couple of years, in order to set up ticket sales for a seminar. A message popped up saying that in order to continue using the site for sales, I needed to register with the US Inland Revenue Service. I started to fill in the form, but began to feel uneasy about handing over so much confidential data to a US government agency, given the activities of DOGE.
I found an alternative events platform, which was developed by a UK based company. The payment system it used had joint headquarters in the US and Ireland, and was a system I was already registered with. Because of the Ireland headquarters, there was no need to hand over my data to any US agency.
I then started to look at alternatives to other US based digital services and discovered a website specifically set up to recommend European alternatives to US based companies. Many of the sites recommended still use Google search engines, but operate via a VPN and have strong data privacy controls.
I was reminded of research on data privacy I commissioned around 15 years ago when I was working for a Japanese IT company. The research analysed surveys on the levels of trust different countries around the world had with regard to having personal data stored in or shared with other countries. Europeans – particularly in Germany and other countries who had experienced dictatorships – turned out to be highly sensitive to having their data stored in countries whose regimes they did not trust.
A couple of years later, the General Data Protection Regulation was introduced in the EU and the regulations based on it still hold in the UK, even after the UK left the EU. In the past year, both the UK and the EU have started to fine digital services companies for improper use of personal data.
The good news for Japanese companies is that then and now, Japan is highly trusted in Europe. However, the language barrier and also cultural differences means that it is unlikely Japanese digital services will be an attractive alternative for European users. Similarly, European digital services may be hard to use for Japanese customers.
More than ever, the merging of products, data and services means that European and Japanese companies will need to partner with each other to develop trusted, global solutions.
This article by Pernille Rudlin originally appeared in Japanese in the Teikoku Databank News on 11th June 2025
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