Ubi data ibi potestas: identità europea e identità personale al vaglio dei big data.

Building on the principle of individual self-determination, the European strategy for digital sovereignty appears to challenge the current trajectory of big data capitalism, not only as a threat to "state sovereignty" but, following the path outlined by the GDPR, as a threat to "individual self-sovereignty." To understand the obstacles currently hindering the realization of European digital sovereignty, the paper begins with a critical analysis of the ontology underpinning computational capitalism, which normalizes "biodatafication" and identity expropriation, undermining individual cognitive autonomy. The second part of the analysis shifts focus to the geo-strategic implications of data, exploring, through the lens of ongoing Sino-American tensions on data sovereignty, its increasing role as a vital resource in the development of AI, in military contexts. In the concluding section, the paper underscores how the recognition of data as a strategic asset for national security raises pressing questions about how digital sovereignty—understood as a necessary condition for the protection of value-based identity—can be actualized within the European Union's current legal and political architecture.