Description:
While the issue of regulating cross-border data flows of data is not new, it has taken on greater importance over the last few years with a number of countries (particularly developing countries) seeking to introduce measures that limit the ability of individuals and businesses to freely transfer data to foreign jurisdictions. The issue is also increasingly the subject matter of international trade negotiations, in bilateral and multilateral fora. One area in which a number of countries implement restrictions on cross-border data transfers concerns health data, due to its perceived sensitivity. However, the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the importance of enabling cross-border flows of certain types of health data – to enable epidemiological and other scientific research, to enable countries to model for spread of the disease and examine possible interventions. While health data sharing across countries can help in developing responses to the pandemic, there continue to remain questions concerning privacy and surveillance, the levels of security that data may be subject to outside its ‘home’ jurisdiction including in terms of whether it can be appropriately anonymised or otherwise masked to remove personal identifiers, and importantly, how the benefits of analysis of such data can be made more equitable and widespread. Given that developing countries in particular may not have the skills or expertise needed to conduct appropriate analysis of pandemic related data (or to develop solutions thereon), they may often have to rely on foreign companies or multinationals. This raises critical issues concerning the fair distribution of the social and economic benefits that could flow from an analysis of pandemic related data, and is directly tied to issues of “ownership” and control over data (and the broader issues of “data colonialism”). In the circumstances, it becomes important to try and understand (a) how different jurisdictions are enabling or restricting cross-border flows of data related to the COVID-19 pandemic, (b) whether any basic principles can be forged, that enable privacy and economic rights of individuals (and communities) to be protected while at the same time allowing for cross-border data flows, and (c) the relevance in this regard of new technical models like federated or edge computing that allow data to stay close to its places of origin while just insights from such data travel for further centralised analysis. The session will attempt to bring together multi-disciplinary expert perspectives on these issues, in order to try and foster greater understanding of global health data ecosystem during the COVID-19 pandemic. The session will in particular seek to explore if and how cross-border data flows of health data can or should be permitted, and how the benefits of analysis of such data can be democratised.
