Challenges for the extraterritoriality of Data Privacy Law

Data of various kinds flow easily across national borders, not least via the Internet. At the same time, laws - or at least the effective enforcement of laws - are typically restricted by these national borders. The difficulties of reconciling these two realities are well known and have been discussed vigorously for more than 30 years by some of the world's smartest legal scholars. The problem is that, during these 30 years we have nevertheless made only limited progress — the fundamental issues remain. Focusing specifically on data privacy law, this short contribution to the discussions, aims to highlight the practical considerations that contribute to the complexity we face so as to equip both legal practitioners and lawmakers to work in the environment characterised by global data flows and local impacts. In an attempt to offer some practical measures that could form part of the ongoing law reform, focus is placed on the section (s 5B) of Australia’s 'Privacy Act 1988' (Cth) that regulate extraterritoriality.