Data Protectionism: The Growing Menace to Global Business
China’s digital protectionism is as great a threat as barriers it puts up for physical goods
By Alan Beattie
Scania is well used to its vehicles being delayed at border crossings by officious customs officers and laborious paperwork. Yet these days, the Swedish truck company’s business is hindered as much by international obstructions to its data as roadblocks on its lorries.
As a Scania truck is driven through the EU, a small box sends diagnostic data — speed, fuel use, engine performance, even driving technique — to the company’s headquarters in Sweden. The information adds to a vast international database that helps owners manage the servicing of their fleet and Scania improve the manufacturing of the next generation of vehicles.
“The world is moving towards an autonomous, electrified transport system, and that needs data,” says Hakan Schildt of Scania’s connected services operation. “Transport is becoming a data business.”
In China, however, which severely restricts international transfers of data, the company incurs extra costs setting up local data storage and segregating some of the information from the rest of its operations. Many countries are imposing similar, if less…
