Privacy Protection(ism)

Abstract

Abstract This chapter argues that it is not possible to strike the right balance between domestic data privacy protection and cross-border data flows by just ruling out ‘digital protectionism’, because ‘protectionism’ is socially constructed by the power of discourse. In regulatory conversations on privacy and personal data protection in the context of cross-border data flows, controlling discourse predetermines the baseline between data privacy protection and protectionism and, as a result, affects the level of such protection considered to be necessary and legitimate from a trade perspective. Conducting conversations within the boundaries of a purely economic ‘digital trade’ discourse puts data privacy protection in an a priori defensive position. A pluralist discourse is necessary to allow parties to multilateral trade negotiations on cross-border data flows to strike the right balance between globalization, democratic politics, and domestic autonomy to pursue domestic values such as fundamental rights to privacy and data protection.