Transborder data flows: adoption and diffusion of protective legislation in the global electronic commerce environment

Abstract

Information privacy is currently regarded as one of the key ethical issues of the information age. Rapid technological developments and the advent of Internet based commerce or electronic commerce (e‐commerce) have forced several nations of the world to enact legislation to protect the information privacy of their citizens and corporations. Transborder data flows (TBDFs) have been known to have a significant impact on multinational and transnational corporations with respect to international data transfers. This paper discusses the issues and implications of TBDFs and provides a comparative account of the privacy laws on individual data protection in different countries. Also proposed is a theoretical model relating to diffusion of social policies of use with respect to the adoption and diffusion of privacy laws by different nations of the world in a global e‐commerce environment.