The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s first Digital Economy Report raises concerns around the distribution of value within the digital economy and its consolidation by tech giants. It calls for greater international cooperation—including among developing nations—over issues of competition, cross-border data transfers and intellectual property. “Digital divides, differences in readiness and the high concentration of market power in the digital economy all point to the need for new policies and regulations aimed at ensuring a fair distribution of the gains from digital disruptions,” the report reads. (The Logic)

Talking point: The UN report highlights the increasing “winner-takes-all” economics of data and the platforms that control it. It builds on some of the work being done in the Canadian context, such as the August 2018 Public Policy Forum report, which warned of tech giants’ impacts on democracy. It also adds to the June 2018 Canadian Internet Registration Authority report, which said seniors, new Canadians, Indigenous Peoples and others are being left behind in Canada by a lack of access to the internet or lack of digital literacy. That report said it isolates them, making it harder for them to access online services and making them more vulnerable to cyber threats. Globally, the digital economy is now as consequential as its physical counterpart: seven of the world’s top eight companies by market capitalization have data-centric business models, according to the UN report.