We call for stricter internet regulation but complain about its consequences. We value privacy, just not enough to pay for it.

“Computers are useless, they can only give you answers,” Pablo Picasso is said to have remarked. At the time, computers were massive machines built to process equations, mostly for scientific purposes. Today, much more sophisticated technologies might seem ‘useless’ for the opposite reason, because they raise too many big questions.

Can we trust what artificial intelligence tells us? Why do we see certain adverts and not others? Is someone shaping our social media feed? And why is it so hard to find trustworthy information?

Despite these questions, our appetite for technology has not faded. The numbers speak for themselves: in 2024, around 3.8 million Slovaks over the age of 16 used the internet, which is more than 94% of the entire population.

Our dependence on the digital world is nothing new. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about it long before smart technologies existed. In The Lord of the Rings, he described the palantíri, magical stones that allowed communication across time and space, yet also corrupted those who relied on them too much. It is no coincidence that a technology company analysing data through artificial intelligence later took the name Palantir.

Today it is clear that technology makes our lives easier, but it also brings new risks, one of them being the loss of control. In Central and Eastern Europe, most of our devices come from Asia, while the software that runs them is controlled by companies in Silicon Valley. The European Union has therefore been trying to regain control by implementing digital regulations. Yet an important question remains: how effective are they?

To find out, the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), helped by Ipsos, carried out a large-scale study across seven Central and Eastern European countries. It looked at how people experience EU digital regulation in their everyday lives.

The results are telling. In Slovakia, 46% of people say they worry about the protection of their personal data, compared to a regional average of 55%. At the same time, between 60% and 69% continue to accept extensive data collection in exchange for free online services. Researchers call this the privacy paradox.

Another paradox concerns regulation itself. A total of 55% of respondents support stricter rules, even if it means delayed access to new technologies. Yet, many also complain that those same rules make the user experience increasingly complicated.

This contradiction becomes clear even in something as simple as an online search. Before the EU’s rules came into force, planning a trip was easy. You could type “hotels in Madrid” and see a neat list of well-known booking sites, complete with photos and map links.

Now, the search results look different. The photos are gone, the layout is cleaner, but at the top of the list you still find the same renowned platforms as before. The regulation was meant to give smaller competitors more visibility, but in practice the biggest players remain firmly in control.

Despite new rules aimed at regulating algorithms and rebalancing the digital market, our habits have not changed much. Across the region, 81% of people use Google daily and 77% use Facebook. In Slovakia, those figures are even higher, 85% and 78%. Hence, only a few of us look for alternatives.

What does it all mean? In Central and Eastern Europe, we want stronger online protection but are unwilling to change our habits. So far, Europe’s digital rules have fallen short.

The article was also published on Medium: https://medium.com/@SmartConsumerInstitute/more-rules-same-habits-the-digital-paradox-of-europe-12e3d41b5259.