preview

Data Localization And Data Localization

Decent Essays

The US, Mexico, and Canada have hit a wall in their fourth round of talks trying to re-negotiate North American Free Trade Agreement. The core of the US proposal is centered around ‘rebalancing' the deal particularly surrounding auto manufacturers, x, and y. However, another important and contentious topic being discussed is NAFTA's regulations regarding digital and data storage. The US demands that "NAFTA countries do not impose measures that restrict cross-border data flows and do not require the use or installation of local computing facilities" (Office of the United States Trade Representative). This stipulation squares the tension between the goal of more open trade in NAFTA versus countries' desire to protect their citizens' privacy …show more content…

In most cases, internet hosts currently host the majority of the data created by their users globally in locations that optimize their network and/or economic performance. Such data localization policies can be broad or narrow in scope, a broad policy would dictate that all data generated in a jurisdiction must be stored in that jurisdiction. Conversely, a policy with a narrow scope would dictate that only particular (usually sensitive) data in specific populations, classes, and industries be stored locally.

For some time different countries have enacted different policies regarding data localization. The EU and Australia have implemented narrow localization policies while Russia and China have implemented broad localization policies. From 2000 - 2015, the European Union established an agreement with the US, the US-EU Safe Harbor Agreement, which allowed U.S. companies to lawfully transfer and process the personal information of citizens in EU member states across borders with little restriction. However in 2014, Angela Merkel, troubled by findings that she had been targeted in U.S. surveillance activities, called for European Internet services to be entirely separated from the United States. The European Union Court of Justice (CJEU) ended the Safe Harbor agreement, determining that the prior level of regulation and protection was inadequate in 2015. In 2016,

Get Access