https://techmonitor.ai/policy/digital-economy/un-calls-urgent-co-operation-cross-border-data-flows

Calls mounted this week for global co-operation on cross-border data flows, with a landmark report from the UN arguing that a new international framework is “urgently needed”. The UN contends that the current rules are exacerbating economic inequality within and between countries, while cloud company Salesforce argued that growing ‘data sovereignty’ policies endanger the global recovery from coronavirus. But between the competing objectives of the global powers, and the commercial might of the tech giants, it is doubtful whether international consensus on how and when data can be shared across borders is achievable.

Published yesterday, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s Digital Economy Report 2021 argues that an uncoordinated and competitive approach to data governance is driving global inequality. “Value capture from data… is increasingly in the hands of a few global digital platforms,” it says. This leads to inequalities both within and between national economies. “Firms in many developing countries may find themselves in subordinate positions, with data and their associated value capture being concentrated in a few global digital platforms and other multinational enterprises that control the data.”