Transborder Data Flows Research Articles

Restrictions on trade in communication and information services

Abstract The convergence of computer and communication technologies has made it feasible to establish a universal international communications network linking all mankind. The information flowing through this network constitutes an increasingly important element of world trade and a major source of future economic growth. However, governments are hesitant to allow the creation of a fully integrated international information network and tend to restrict at least some information flows for privacy, security, cultural, or economic reasons. This analysis argues that freer flows of information across national borders could help facilitate international economic growth and adjustment. Reasons used to justify policies that inhibit the integration of the world communication network or prevent transborder data flows are examined, and the implications of such restraints are discussed. Strategies for‐halting the proliferation of barriers to trade in communication and information services and for reducing existing ob...

Emerging economic constraints on transborder data flows

The phenomena of transborder data flows have emerged from rapid technical changes in the area of computer communications. Attendant upon this, new economic opportunities are inducing institutional changes designed to modify the manner in which economic gains are to be partitioned. This has, in turn, led to government actions that go beyond conventional allocative and redistributive roles of governmental intervention. This paper discusses some of the welfare implications of ‘protectionism’ that have appeared on the international scene. By so doing we may begin to anticipate and perhaps circumvent the economic inefficiencies of barriers to trade involving data flows.

TDF: the hardy perennial

By its very nature, transborder data flow is international in scope, since it involves the transfer of data and information across national boundaries. The problems and issues it raises are complex and often sensitive. Many are without precedent and highly protean in character, as the pace of technological change continues without abatement and the technologies spread to ever-widening spheres of application. New concepts will need to be developed and new approaches to international cooperation may become necessary.

Second world conference on transborder data flow policies - Rome - 26–29 June 1984

Second world conference on transborder data flow policies - Rome - 26–29 June 1984

Data Border Crossings

Most of us are well aware that the world is being changed by new information technologies, especially in the area of computers and telecommunications. Fewer are aware that these same technologies have stimulated major policy debates in international councils and within the economic and foreign policy-making chambers of an ever-increasing number of nations. Generally, these debates focus on the economic and political impact of technologies that enable computer data to be sent across national borders, a process known as transborder data flow (TDF). But transborder data flow has given rise to complex social and moral questions as well. At issue are such matters as national sovereignty and security, and the right of citizens to privacy and freedom of speech.

Data protection in the United Kingdom: Part 1

The United Kingdom Government is about to enact legisla tion for data protection. It is intended that this will safeguard the pnvacy of the individual which is seen to be threatened by the increasing use and capabilities of computerised personal information systems. There are also fears that the British computer and data processing industries will be at a disad vantage when competing in the international market without legislation equivalent to that already operating in other coun tries. The legislation will enable the UK to ratify the Council of Europe Data Protection Convention and to comply with the OECD Guidelines on Transborder Data Flow. Data protection is a valuable example of the interaction of information technology and society. This paper presents an overview of the issues involved. It examines what is meant by data privacy and how that privacy may be infringed by the use of both computerised and manual record systems. The impact of technology on the privacy problem is descnbed, including linkage of computer systems and the contribution of computer security. The need for legislation is discussed, both within the context of the international situation and of the early attempts at domestic legislation.

The IIASA TPA/70-X.25 gateway-network promotes international flow of scientific information

This paper describes the “TPA/70-X.25 gateway-network” of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, and of the Institute for Computerization and Automation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (SZTAKI) in Hungary, and its promoting role in the on-line exchange of scientific information among national and international institutes and organizations. It presents a short overview of the major categories of transborder data flows relevant to IIASA's work, and how the gateway-network handles them. Finally, some operational and technical aspects of this East-West network of gateways are discussed.

Cultural barriers to the international transfer of information

The recent debates on such issues as the transborder data flow or the new information order have brought to light the cultural implications of information activities. This is fortunate since information science used to consider them only as aspects of language barrier. Information has recently been qualified as a humankind's heritage. Sharing it requires not only the international flow of information, but also its unimpeded creation and use. Considering that humankind is not limited to the inhabitants of Europe and North America, this paper discusses the various ways in which objective and subjective cultural traits affect the generation, presentation, transfer and use of information in different societies. It emphasizes that all presently available information products and services are culture dependent, and primarily dependent upon the “northern” culture, what drastically limits their international value, but for “occidentalized” elite groups.

Transborder data flows and the developing countries

Appropriately applied, accurate information is central to decision making, including decisions on all matters related to development. Information is a precondition for identifying alternatives, reducing uncertainty about their implications, and facilitating their implementation. Thus, information is a critical resource.

Peace and Communication

Current international debate on international communication issues as reflected in the drafting of media declarations is primarily based on recent studies about the flow of information. The background to these studies is described as well as their contribution to the debate. The paper discusses the problem that there is much work on the quantitative aspect of the flow but not enough qualitative work or theoretical understanding of the flow. Some attempts to summarize the findings are made. New areas for research such as transborder data flow are brought into the picture. As international policy recommendations, the paper concludes that flow studies should be extended to analyse how such crucial problems of mankind as disarmament, peace, development and human rights are affected by the national media and the international flow of information. The author's approach is to stress the demands of a truer and more perfect knowledge of each other's lives, stemming from UNESCO's constitution and reflected also in the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. As a counterargument to the demand of free flow of 'all kinds of information', there is evidence which has led some scholars to conclude that 'the surest antidote for ignorance and deceit is the widest possible exchange of objectively realistic information - true information, not merely more information.' Therefore, the qualitative aspects of the contents of the flow become crucial for research.

The Information Revolution: Issues of Transborder Data Flows

The international debate on information and communication became intense and acrimonious by the end of the 1970 s. The publication of the Macbride Commission Report in 1980 was the high water-mark in this debate.1 Throughout the 1970 s, the developing countries had been pressing for a new world order on information and communication as part of their struggle for a new international economic order. In the Third World, the public debate in general has been limited to issues of imbalances in the flow of international news dominated by the big four international news agencies (AP, Reuter, AFP and UPI), the efforts of the non-aligned countries to create a newspool, etc. However, the rapid strides in the field of microelectronics and its marriage to the developments in space technology has posed a number of intractable problems before the Third World, besides the issue of newsflow. The most important international fallout of the new developments in technology is the issue of transborder data flows (TDF).2 The international legal, political and economic implications of data flows across national frontiers are increasingly acquiring greater significance.

International computer crime: Where terrorism and transborder data flow meet

International computer use is growing rapidly. With this growth has come: 1. 1. Increased computer use in critical areas; 2. 2. Increased security problems; and 3. 3. Increased vulnerability to a variety of international computer crimes. The experience from selected jurisdictions indicates that the international community is unduly vulnerable to computer crime. Each country with computers needs to take the first step to reduce international computer crime vulnerability. In addition, there are vehicles for international cooperation which can be adapted for use against international computer crime.

Computers and communications in the 1980's: Benefits and problems

The convergence of computers and communications places in our hands some very powerful new tools for manipulating and transmitting information, which are susceptible of further development towards many-to-many video and audio communications. These raise the question of how they can and should be used. Whilst the technology is ‘neutral’, its use clearly is not. Problems discussed include access to data, transborder data flows, employment and environmental changes possible, political effects, implementation problems and Government regulatory policies. The paper concludes by wondering whether we live too close together for comfort.

Some Policy and Legal Issues in Transborder Data Flow

Some Policy and Legal Issues in Transborder Data Flow

Informatics and transborder data flow: The question of social impact

AbstractDuring the 1970s, computerized information‐processing networks have been established on a large scale linking much of the world. It has generally been accepted that the massive transborder data flows involved will have serious social, political, and economic consequences. Since 1973, a growing number of nations has enacted legislation attempting to forestall any adverse social effects of the transborder digital traffic. During the next few years, several world bodies will finalize policies on transborder data flow, and international laws or treaties may be called for. Unfortunately, the analysis of the extent of transborder data traffic, as well as of attendant social effects, is merely beginning. This article attempts to summarize what has been suggested so far as a move toward focusing the question of social effects.

Privacy, confidentiality and computers: National and international implications of US information policy

The author assesses what the USA has been doing or not doing in recent years to develop information policies for personal record information to deal with the rapidly changing record-keeping world of public and private organizations. He reviews how well these policies have been implemented and enforced in the context of the US system of government, and compares the experience of European countries with US efforts, especially in the light of the serious debate which is emerging over restraints placed on transborder data flows by the privacy protection efforts of various countries.

The regulation of transborder data flows

Restrictions on transmission of data across borders are sometimes proposed as means to control abuses such as invasions of privacy. The authors explore the thesis that controls on cross-border data flows are rarely effective in helping to achieve such ends. They argue that the technology of modern telecommunications does not allow easy control over message content; and that there are other, more strategically effective techniques to restrict abuses committed in international electronic transactions.

Legal problems of computer networks: A methodological survey

To answer the question which legal problems are connected with computer networks, one needs to know first their future social consequences. But that requires an interdisciplinary “systems” approach, including prognostic methods and ‘irrational’ decisions. But which are the characteristics of computer networks? They combine very different social purposes with very different information technologies (a classification scheme of the latter is given). This leads to at least three levels of social problems coming up with computer networks: (1) ‘normal’ automation problems (disemployment, dequalification, etc.), (2) additional information automation problems (“privacy”, balance of information powers), (3) special computer network problems (e.g. transborder data flows — ‘information sovereignty’ of nations). Legal problems occur on all three levels, as is shown in detail. But none of them is really “new” — with the only possible exception of the urgent need of international regulations. The result is astonishing: No legal problem of computer networks seems to be unsolvable by common (interdisciplinary) legal work. But one deciding premise is undecided: which of the innumerable possible combinations of information technologies for c.n.s. will be reality? It is up to information politicians to publicly discuss and to decide. Where are they?

Survey of National Data Protection Legislation

Since 1973 eight countries have enacted and two formally proposed data protection legislation. The Council of Europe has begun the drafting of a convention. Scope. The draft convention refers to the automatic processing of personal data in both the public and the private sectors. Over half the Acts and Bills apply to manual as well as automatic systems; under half to data about legal as well as natural persons. Only the US and Canadian Acts do not apply to the private sector. Principles. The draft convention would require each state to implement the principles that data banks should be publicly known; accessible to data subjects; fairly collated; accurate up-to-date and relevant; exclusive of data relating to race, philosophy, religion, politics or trade union views; and secure against accidental or deliberate access, alteration or release. Most of the legislation embodies most of these principles, albeit enforced more strickly in some cases than others. Most of the legislation additionally regulates the communication of data to third parties. Methods of regulation. Data users are subjected to a licensing, regulatory or investigate authority. The US Act alone does not establish a data protection agency, but relies on the data subject to enforce legal rights by civil suit. Transborder data flows. Most of the countries regulate the flow of data across their borders; some provide for cooperation with foreign data protection authorities. Only the US and Canadian Acts exclude foreign data subjects from the scope of their protection.

There's Trouble in the Air over Transborder Data Flow

There's Trouble in the Air over Transborder Data Flow