IGF Workshop: Cross-Border Data Sharing for Public Safety

The session explored cross-border data sharing for national security and law enforcement purposes.

The increasing digital nature of crime and national security threats have rendered cross-border data requests a growing, prominent part of global national security and law enforcement investigations across the world. While data requests from governments to the private sector have become increasingly more structured and regulated, existing frameworks do not adequately cover all aspects of cross-border data transfers and tensions still loom about implications for the integrity and the protection of citizens’ privacy.

This roundtable first explored the current status of affairs, including legal frameworks in place, the evolution of cross-border sharing practices since the Snowden revelations and most salient challenges to safeguarding privacy.

Departing from that diagnosis, the roundtable discussed multi-stakeholder perspectives on innovative approaches to build greater trust and transparency between the various stakeholders involved in cross-border data sharing in national security and law enforcement contexts –including governments, national security units, regulators, private sector and civil society– and the criteria under which governments should have access to personal data held by the private sector.

The roundtable took into account ongoing discussions in the OECD and across the Global South, as well as international standards, including human rights.