Information Economy and Data Protection Laws: A Global Perspective

Abstract

The research paper under review examines the information economies of various countries and studies their related data protection laws associated with those countries. The trade aspects of information economies including the ICT tools and the ICT enabled services have also been dealt with to assess the role and the impact of ICT tools in implementation of international trade among various countries to enable to achieve sustainable development goals targeted by the United Nations by the turn of 2030. The paper also highlights the various aspects of information technology tools such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, robotics, framework of digital economy, e-commerce and e-Trade readiness etc., among others. The role of UNCTAD as an international organization with regards to promoting ICT tools and IT-enabled services to achieve international trade and in particular e-Trade and e-commerce leading to a seamless digital economy among various countries have also been focused in the research study. The data protection laws of various economies both developed and developing, have also been assessed to study specifically the role and impact of these cyber laws/data protection laws on the international economy including their related implications/ramifications on the regional, national and local economies, which would have a significant and sizeable impact on international trade including e-Trade among various economies. Though the developing economies including undeveloped, small island and landlocked economies have more or less good IT penetration, but their data protection laws seems to be still in prototype stage and need to be synchronized and integrated with the global data protection laws to achieve global e-commerce and e-Trade and a robust global digital economy. This would go a long way in achieving the SDGs slated by UN by the turn of 2030.