Data and extraterritoriality

The regulation of data across territorial boundaries has increased in scope and intensity in recent years and has led to legal conflicts between regulatory systems. This chapter examines the nature of extraterritoriality as it pertains to data and the sources of law that are relevant to it. The various connections with the forum that have been used for asserting jurisdiction and their underlying policies are analysed to show how extraterritoriality manifests itself regarding data. These jurisdictional issues are not unique to data, but the ease by which data can be processed and transferred across national borders makes issues and conflicts arising from extraterritoriality more frequent and intense. The potential for technological measures to deal with issues of extraterritoriality is also analyzed, before evaluating the current state of the law and presenting some reflections on the future of extraterritoriality and data.