Who owns the data owns the world – Reflections from the Vatican

For more than two decades I have focused on building companies that solve problems the world had not yet understood. Through Safer Society Group and NetClean we saw early the need to detect and eradicate child sexual abuse materal, to protect data at scale, and to secure corporate IT environments where risk was growing long before most people noticed.

Working closely with law enforcement agencies around the world gave me an early view of how these threats evolved and what type of technology the world would need. The companies we built, including NetClean were never driven by trends. They were created because the world needed them and the world still does.

That belief was reinforced last week when NetClean was invited to the Vatican for the High Level Meeting on Child Dignity in the Artificial Intelligence Era. Meeting Pope Leo XIV and contributing to a conversation of that magnitude showed that our direction and long term commitment are recognized at the highest international level. It also gave me a chance to reflect on what truly shapes our digital future.

Three insights stood out to me and they matter for every company operating today.

1. Our Data Shapes Tomorrow’s Systems

Everything we do now feeds data into systems that learn from us. That information trains the algorithms that will influence decisions, behavior, and risk in the years ahead. For children and young people, digital footprints are created long before they understand privacy or consent. If we fail to protect them and the data they create, we risk losing freedom, independence, and dignity. Data does not disappear and in the wrong hands it can be weaponized.

The same is true for companies. When corporate information reaches the wrong actor it becomes leverage. It can influence operations and markets and in the worst cases disrupt society. The data we create today defines the environment we will live and work in tomorrow. Strong protection starts with clarity, governance, and real control.

2. When We Give Away Data, We Give Away Power

Data is more than a resource. It is influence. Whoever controls the data controls the story and the story often becomes the market.

When any of us hand over information, whether as private individuals, children, or companies, we also hand over leverage. In a world shaped by fast moving AI systems and adversaries searching for weaknesses, losing control of data puts trust, safety, performance, and stability at risk. Strong protection of data is becoming one of the clearest signs of a resilient society and a resilient company.

3. Data Protection Builds Resilience

The Vatican meeting reminded me that societies and businesses are only as resilient as their digital environments. One weakness can create consequences that reach far beyond a single company and impact both lives and society.

There are actors who exploit children and the data created around them for their own gratification. At the same time there are adversaries who look for weaknesses inside companies and use those weaknesses to gain access to information, disrupt operations, and put pressure on society. These threats are different, but they meet in the same digital environment and they reveal how vulnerable we all become when data is not protected.

In this reality trust becomes the key to resilience. When an employee consumes child sexual abuse material that trust is gone. A compromised individual cannot protect the integrity an organization depends on because being compromised means being open to extortion and blackmail. This is where NetClean contributes by detecting when trust is broken inside a company so leaders can act before the compromise spreads. Resilience begins only when compromise ends.

The recognition from the Vatican confirmed what I already know. NetClean is not only part of the global conversation. We lead it. Protecting data is not only about today. It is about safeguarding society and the next generation.

Impact has always been at the heart of why we founded NetClean. It remains our purpose as we continue building what the world needs now.

Pelle Garå CEO, Safer Society Group Chairman of the Board, NetClean