The efficacy of international regulation of transborder data flows: The case for the clipper chip

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses the origins of Transborder Data Flows (TDFs) as an international problem in the early 1970s and the realization, among all concerned, that country-by-country control of such TDFs was likely to be problematic. The article shows how further technological development in telecommunications and networks in the intervening years has made regulation more complex but also more urgent. Part of this urgency emanates from increased danger of computer crimes such as copyright infringement, breach of personal privacy, and electronic sabotage. The problems being experienced by the U.S. government in responding, unilaterally, to this danger through the Key Escrowed Encryption System (KEES), popularly known as the clipper chip , illustrate the need for an international response. Such a response, is feasible in the 1990s due to the growth of multilateralism and the changing nature of national sovereignty. The article recommends the internationalization of the KEES and development of broad international TDF regulations and enforcement mechanisms.