Personal Data: national security and international agreements. The Latin American option

Abstract

The restrictions adopted by the US government shocked the international press, first to prevent government purchases (National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA) Sec.889), and more recently to prevent the updating of telecommunication equipment operating systems produced by Chinese companies (Executive Order issued by President Trump on May 16, 2019). But it was quickly noticed that the latest measures could be not only ineffective but, worse still, would lead to adverse effects. The threat posed by the development of high-speed networks and systems for the manipulation of data and, by extension, for the national security of the United States (USA), could no longer be neutralized by trade measures or by intellectual property rules. In this sense, the open source modality in the patents of operating systems for electronic devices, shows that the intellectual property statutes are becoming more flexible and adapting to very fast technological substitutions which, in the information & technology sector, point to capture and manipulate personal data with un-precedent voracity.

In this context and due to the electronic flow of personal data from the European Union (EU) to the USA and faced with the difficulty for a regulatory convergence, a “Privacy Shield” was set up in order to guarantee the rights of the users and make the activity of companies compatible with the principles of public interest on both sides of the Atlantic. This could be a valuable precedent for the design of an international agreement of a multilateral nature aimed at regulating global connectivity.