Faced with the revolution in the digital sector, it is necessary to implement a certain number of provisions in order to regulate the sector. In an opinion, the economist Philippe Crevel tries to make proposals

Digital companies question the fundamentals of the capitalist economy and democracy since their wealth comes from the data they collect from Internet users.
“If Google, Apple, Amazon and others are making significant profits, it is thanks to the growing volumes of information processed and resold. They make it possible to send targeted advertising to consumers, to guide them or even disorient them. They are the basis of numerous algorithms and applications that are used by a very large number of companies,” explains economist Philippe Crevel.
By moving, checking emails, watching a video, a site, or paying, a person generates data that is likely to be exploited. For the economist, between 2020 and 2025, the digital world will have more than 2,142 zettabytes of digital data.
“Data is a commodity that is largely free. In the industrial process mode, such a phenomenon is rare, even if in the past, relations between companies processing raw materials and producers of the latter have always been complicated, as shown by the two oil shocks of 1973 and 1979,” reveals Philippe Crevel. To justify maintaining this collection of free data, he maintains that digital giants highlight that they allow the design of products adapted to consumers' needs and expectations, that they are at the origin of advances in the medical field, geolocation, the prevention of natural disasters, etc. The collection of data and their use raise economic and ethical problems. The rules of free competition are distorted and human rights are also at risk. Laws adopted in recent years are ineffective in regulating the data market. And above all, data is an almost free commodity