The definition of Digital Sovereignty

This is a preview article from my upcoming book: 

Digital Sovereignty in Europe - Architecture and Strategies for Technological Independence

Digital sovereignty doesn't have a universally accepted definition. Therefore, this is the definition that is used in the context of my book:

Digital sovereignty is the ability of a state, organization, or individual to exercise meaningful control over digital infrastructure, data, platforms, and the rules that govern them. It is the right to decide who accesses data, under what conditions, and under whose laws.

It should be kept separate from a related but distinct concept: digital autonomy. Sovereignty means enforceable authority, usually backed by law and political power. Autonomy means the practical ability to act independently within digital environments.

For instance, a country can have digital sovereignty through legislation while depending entirely on foreign infrastructure to carry it out. Germany enforces strict data storage and privacy rules under the European GDPR, yet its cloud infrastructure runs largely on U.S.-based providers – specifically Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure.

Sovereignty is about permission, where autonomy is about power. And you can have one without the other. For example: a hacker has no legal authority over anything, but is still capable of taking down a government website.

Sovereignty includes the principle of self-determination – the right of a people, institution, or individual to govern themselves according to their own values and interests. In IT systems, this produces specific requirements: where data is stored and processed, who may access it, and which technical standards are used for communication.

Technological self-determination isn't purely a technical problem, it is also a political one. When a government can't audit the algorithms executing its own laws, something has gone seriously wrong. When critical national infrastructure runs on servers that are subject to foreign jurisdiction, the country loses real independence. In both cases, political power quietly slips away.

This entry was posted on Thursday 09 July 2026