Samm Sacks: A Discussion of the U.S.-China Technology Relationship & The Politics of Data
Part 1
About the event
Control over the world’s data is the great power competition of our time. The United States, China, Europe, India, and Japan are all seeking to assert their influence in a new world order by setting the rules for who has access to data and how it is used—or data governance. We are on a path toward a world carved up into "data spheres of influence."
Regional data governance clashes have become even more pronounced in the wake of COVID-19 as countries grapple with how to use data and digital technologies to manage the pandemic—and come up with very different approaches, not only to data protection but also the question of data sovereignty.
Is a data spheres of influence world inevitable? As data reshapes global power, what should U.S. policy look like to maintain the openness of the U.S. system but with new guardrails in place?
Part 2
About the Speaker
Samm Sacks is a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center and a Cybersecurity Policy Fellow at New America. Her research focuses on emerging information and communication technology (ICT) policies in China. She has worked on Chinese technology policy issues for over a decade, with the national security community and the private sector.
She leads New America’s Data & Great Power Competition project, looking at the geopolitics of data governance. She has published widely cited commentaries on and translations of Chinese primary source cyber policy documents on issues such as the US-China technology relationship, China’s cybersecurity regulatory environment, and the evolution of China's data governance system.
Previously, Samm launched the industrial cyber business for Siemens in Asia, focusing on energy sector cybersecurity markets in Japan, South Korea, and China. Prior to this, she led China technology sector analysis at the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. Prior to this, she worked at Booz Allen Hamilton and Defense Group Inc., where she was a Chinese linguist and analyst for the U.S. government focused on China’s technology development.
A former Fulbright scholar in Beijing, Samm holds an M.A. from Yale University in international relations and a B.A. from Brown University in Chinese literature. She lives with her husband and two young sons in New York.