Cyber Strategy Officials Address Cross-Border Data Flow

2018 will see big strides in shaping the future of cross-border data flows on the Internet, according to Jonah Force Hill, an Internet policy specialist at the Department of Commerce, and Matthew Noyes, director of cyber policy and strategy at the Secret Service. They reference several legal and regulatory efforts underway, including United States v. Microsoft Corp. now being heard in the Supreme Court, and a rare piece of bipartisan legislation, the “CLOUD Act,” that is working its way through Congress. Both address the challenge of balancing the free flow of information on the Internet with competing public policy demands such as data privacy and intellectual property protection. The tension between constraints and demands for free flowing information raises complicated questions – Who “owns” what data? Which sovereign laws should apply to data overseas? When, and how, should governments access data stored abroad? – These and other issues have spawned international disputes that threaten the continued growth of the Internet and the broader information economy. Vint Cerf, one of the Internet’s creators, describes such conflicts as“one of the biggest policy challenges of our time and more complex even than building the Internet.”