Three scenarios for international governance of data privacy : Towards an international data privacy organization, preferably a UN agency

Data privacy regulation has reached a crossroads: while three out of the four intergovernmental organizations that have released relevant regulations (the OECD, the Council of Europe, and the EU) are amending their respective texts, each one is implementing its own agenda. The Internet and cloud computing are making the need for international governance more evident than ever. Three scenarios may be foreseen: 1) the status quo remains, and technology intervenes to address public concerns; 2) the EU General Data Protection Regulation, which is expected to replace the EU Data Protection Directive by mid-2014, comes into effect and then goes on to set the international data privacy standard; or, 3) as suggested in this paper, an international data privacy organization, preferably a UN agency, is established to promote data privacy issues and warrant