Europe Should Put Data at the Service of Society

Europe faces some daunting challenges—an aging population, sluggish growth, an influx of migrants and refugees—yet in the age of data-driven innovation, it also has powerful new tools to help address them, writes Nick Wallace in EurActiv. But Europe is not doing enough to make the most of the opportunity. In fact, some in Europe reflexively bridle at the very concept of “big data,” characterizing it as a manifestation of a rapacious capitalism that is cynically indifferent or even malevolently opposed to the public interest.