The Tech Arms Race is Reshaping Our Lives — and Threatening Democracy

Earlier this year, Europe saw a milestone: three defense start-ups reached unicorn status, each valued at over €1 billion. These companies, building a range of ‘products’ from autonomous drones to robotic systems — even equipping real cockroaches with micro-backpacks — are part of a growing wave of defense-tech innovation. Europe is now racing to catch up with the United States and China, where defense-tech start-ups have already been attracting significant venture capital and government backing. But this isn’t just about military competition. It’s about a deeper transformation that’s already reshaping our societies.

A new doctrine is emerging: technological dominance at any cost. What we’re witnessing is not just an arms race — it’s a race of technological dependency where civil and military infrastructures are fusing, and the battlefield is no longer “over there.” It’s here, embedded in our cities, our homes, and our daily lives.

Personal data is the critical resource underlying much of this innovation. In turn, the paradigm of rights-based data protection laws is now competing with one driven by national security, to protect ‘our citizens’ personal data’ from hostile exploitation. This distinct shift from protecting “everyone’s personal data” is now “our people’s data,” which implies something different for “their data.”