Presentation of the report Digital Society in Spain 2018

Telefónica Foundation has presented, as every year, the report Digital Society in Spain (sdiE). Since 2000, this document has become a benchmark that includes the most relevant social indicators in the digital society scene, as well as analyzes the evolution of digital services and infrastructures in the national sphere.

The 2018 edition highlights the role played by broadband, both fixed and mobile, in the digitalization process, focusing especially on the importance of 5G as it leads to a hyper-connected world. Progressively, citizens and businesses are adopting technology and network services as everyday elements. In this regard, among the milestones and trends of the year, the report highlights the arrival of intelligent assistants, the proliferation of collaborative robots in factories, the preference for instant messaging of the so called “mute generation,” the increase in payment platforms to view audiovisual content online at home or the protagonism that fake news adquire.

At the same time, the massive analysis of data with artificial intelligence algorithms allows us to respond to the current great challenge of hyperpersonalisation. But in this panorama digital confidence as a challenge is also presented, an issue evidenced in the last year by the global reach of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Citizens’ concern for their privacy on the Internet, and for the use made of their personal data, is pronounced in the political agenda with the entry into force in Europe of the General Regulation on Data Protection and the approval in Spain of the Organic Law on Data Protection. The report emphasizes the need to put people and their rights in the center of the debate, moving towards the evolution of the digital user to the digital citizen.

At the same time, the massive analysis of data with artificial intelligence algorithms allows us to respond to the current challenge of hyperpersonalisation. But in this panorama, digital confidence also appears as a great challenge, an issue evidenced in the last year by the global reach of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Citizens’ concern for their privacy on the Internet, and for the use of their personal data, is pronounced in the political agenda with the entry into force in Europe of the General Regulation on Data Protection and the approval in Spain of the Organic Law on Data Protection. The report emphasizes the need of caring about people and their rights, moving towards the evolution from the digital user to the digital citizen.

The presentation of the report, broadcast in streaming and avaliable on the network, was attended by Francisco Polo, Secretary of State for the digital advancement of the Ministry of Economy and Business, and Valeriano Gómez Sánchez, former Minister of Labor and Immigration.