As the eyes of the world look to the US ahead of the presidential elections in November, it’s clearer than ever that where Barack Obama’s successor leads, other countries will follow.
Which, regardless of which way you lean politically, makes Hillary Clinton publishing her tech agenda very interesting.
Technology is at the forefront of many of the big questions facing our world today, and critically important to how people in that world are able to live, work, be their best selves and contribute to the world of tomorrow.
Of course we’re not naive – her agenda is designed to tick all the boxes for all the people, and most politicians worldwide over promise and under deliver – but it’s still a glance into what a Clinton presidency would mean for some key tech issues.
As anyone familiar with us will know, our driving ambition is all about putting data back into the hands of the people who have most at stake in it – ie you – and giving them more control over what they can do with that.
As part of that, what countries say at a top tier level about what they want data to be and do is, in many ways, critical to our business and how we expand across the globe. So Hillary saying that she wants to “harness the power of technology and innovation” as well as fight for privacy and net neutrality speaks to what we believe in, and is very encouraging to hear.
Our Internet of Me vision sees each of us at the centre of our connected lives, gaining greater insight by gathering information formerly scattered all over the web in one place, and then allowing consumers to exchange it for rewards, while businesses allowed access to it can innovate using 100 per cent accurate and rich data sets.
The open flow of data worldwide is a critical part of this, and so commitments to: “fighting for Internet Freedom and insisting on the responsibility of all nations to respect free speech and human rights online, as well as the open flow of data across borders and access to digital markets.” also get the thumbs up.
Again with the caveats that having an agenda, even if elected, is of course no guarantee of action, plans to open up US data sets on health, education and criminal justice and strong protection of consumer values all sound broadly good too.
It’s got to be put in the mix with other policies as well, of course, and America will decide its next President on more than what they will do in the technology sphere.
But it would be interesting to see Donald Trump set out a similar agenda, so we could see where he stands on these critical issues of our times.