Data havens, or privacy sans frontières?: a study of international personal data transfers

The web routinely spreads personal data from one jurisdiction to another, where levels of legal protection over such data vary. This raises the potential for some jurisdictions to become "data havens" specialising in either strong protection of data, or allowing its unrestricted use [5],[3]. In order to promote interoperability and harmonisation, some jurisdictions with similar levels of protection may approve each other's data protection regimes, lifting restrictions on international transfers. This article presents a quantitative analysis of over 16,000 international data transfer arrangements made by UK or-ganisations in 2013. Our findings support the hypothesis that one jurisdictions' approval of another's data protection regime is associated with more data transfer arrangements between them. We conclude with implications for the futureof cross-border data transfers and the prospect of "personal data havens".