The principles that will guide the European Union's (EU) "digital transformation" have been outlined in the European Commission's new "Declaration on Digital Rights and Principals". The principles outlined in the December 15th document will guide policy-makers and companies working with new technologies in the bloc, while also shaping the EU's international relations planks on digital transformation as well. "The rights put forward in our Declaration are guaranteed for everybody in the EU, online as they are offline," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. "And the digital principles enshrined in the Declaration will guide us in our work on all new initiatives.” Why it matters: The US also recently released principles that would guide its policies and regulation of the tech sector. Documents like these can give stakeholders an idea of the kind of principle-based approaches that may inform tech policy worldwide. However, it is also important to read between the lines of the virtues listed in these vision statements. For example, an explanatory note accompanying India's newly-released draft data protection law highlighted an important principle of tech policy underlying it—that personal data must be used in limited and purpose-driven ways. The actual text of the law does not contain explicit provisions on this kind of "purpose limitation", with some arguing that it only broadens the scope of data processing. "Putting people at the centre of the EU's digital transformation" With the declaration stating that "people are at the centre of the digital transformation in the European Union", the EU has…
