Recommendation

The administration should engage with U.S. trade partners to create a “Geneva Convention on the Status of Data.”

Details

The United States should engage with its trade partners to establish international legal standards for government access to data through a “Geneva Convention on the Status of Data.” This would create a multilateral agreement establishing international rules for transparency, settling questions of jurisdiction, producing better coordination of international law-enforcement requests, and limiting unnecessary access by governments to the data on citizens of other countries. Only by working to establish a global pact can countries hold each other accountable on these issues in the future.

Keep reading:

▪ Daniel Castro and Alan McQuinn, “Beyond the USA Freedom Act: How U.S. Surveillance Still Subverts U.S. Competitiveness” (ITIF, June 2015), https://itif.org/publications/2015/06/09/beyond-usa-freedom-act-how-us-surveillance-still-subverts-us-competitiveness.