A New Framework for Cross-Border Data Flows (Karen Kornbluh, CFR)

The flow of data across international borders creates jurisdictional challenges, as the data itself and the person generating it may be subject to different countries' laws. International tensions result when law enforcement seeks evidence stored on a foreign server during a domestic criminal investigation or when individuals expect domestic privacy protections for data hosted abroad. Increasingly, countries have responded by imposing new requirements to store data locally, threatening cross-border data flows, which generate approximately $2.8 trillion of global gross domestic product each year. The United States should take the lead in addressing these tensions. Given that the majority of the world's largest Internet companies are headquartered in the United States, tensions erupt most frequently when foreign citizens' data is held by U.S. companies or stored on U.S. soil

http://www.cfr.org/internet-policy/new-framework-cross-border-data-flows/p37898