Data aren’t centrally held, thus reducing the chance of Equifax-level breaches. Instead, the government’s data platform, X-Road, links individual servers through end-to-end encrypted pathways, letting information live locally. Your dentist’s practice holds its own data; so does your high school and your bank. When a user requests a piece of information, it is delivered like a boat crossing a canal via locks. Although X-Road is a government platform, it has become, owing to its ubiquity, the network that many major private firms build on, too. Finland, Estonia’s neighbor to the north, recently began using X-Road, which means that certain data—for instance, prescriptions that you’re able to pick up at a local pharmacy—can be linked between the nations. It is easy to imagine a novel internationalism taking shape in this form.↱
![Estonia, the Digital Republic](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstorage.googleapis.com%2Fsawyer-highlights.appspot.com%2Fvolume%252Fcovers%252F171218r31150.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
Estonia, the Digital Republic
Nathan Heller