Data Border Control

It’s interesting in this age of cloud computing – the borderless ether – that countries are beginning to redefine legislation to make companies liable for what happens to their data overseas. A recent article in Australia’s Financial Review (Julian Bajkowski, It’s all change for privacy laws, 12082008, p38) outlined the Australian Government’s first steps in implementing the Australian Law Reform Commission’s 295 proposed reforms. These reforms address the critical issues of consumer information in medical, government and commercial scenarios, in light of cross border data warehousing. These reforms will effect how companies distribute their datascapes, and redefine a new world order of data security and privacy; countries with similar legislation will be able to work more effectively than with those that don’t.