Cross-Border Data Flows: An Evolving Multi-Layered Regulatory Approach Required!

Abstract

This article will discuss the increasing importance of the multi-layered approach that personal data is taking in transnational cross-border data flows. It examines the role personal data plays in the evolving digital economy. The article will address a further accentuating question as to how far, if at all, the cross-border data flows are being considered in the area of national security. Throughout the outbreak of coronavirus, technology has been used by nation states to trace and collect health data of its citizens, in the interest of the broader national interest/security of individual states. Some states in developing the technology to track and trace their citizens went one step further and established bilateral agreements to share some of the data, such as Australia and Singapore. What emerged, was the evolving complex layers regulating while enabling data flows. The dichotomy facing governments and regulators is to allow for the free flow of personal data, while ensuring data subjects do not relinquish their privacy. To achieve this, I propose a Theory Of Action (TOA). Such an approach is widely accepted in other industry sectors where governments regulated a minimum standard, such as primary, human health and food production. Cross-Border Data Flows, Data Transfers, Digital Economy, National Security, Trade in Data