Outdated, incompatible or missing national and regional legal frameworks to protect data in the digital economy will become problematic for the future integration of developing countries into the global economy and threaten the benefits they could derive from cross-border ecommerce, says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).

Unctad’s ‘Data Protection Regulations and International Data Flows: Implications for Trade and Development’ report advises that more dialogue between all stakeholders is needed to achieve adequate protection, as coherent and compatible data protection regimes will be ever-more important in the face of new technologies such as cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things.

According to Unctad's data-law tracker, Global Cyberlaw Tracker, only 108 countries have data protection laws and 35 have draft laws; about 60 developing countries have no data protection laws at all.

Existing national and regional regimes, such as those in the US and the Eurpean Union, often contain similar principles, but even they differ in their approaches to dealing with cross-border data flows, the report highlights.

“Differing notions of privacy and a variety of different stakeholder interests create tensions. Individuals are concerned about their right to privacy and being able to safely and confidently use online services; governments are concerned about national security and safety, and businesses about compliance burdens and regulations that might hamper innovation and trade,” states the report.

To promote international compatibility, it is important to avoid duplication and fragmentation in approaches to data protection. Instead of pursuing multiple initiatives, global and regional organisations must concentrate on one unifying initiative or a smaller number of initiatives that are internationally compatible.

In developing and promoting international and regional data protection initiatives, consideration should also be given to the compliance burden and the potential adverse effects on trade, innovation and competition, especially from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In this context, the report suggests, SMEs participate in debates related to data protection initiatives, emphasising that provisions that build consumer trust and confidence in regulatory models will help to grow ecommerce worldwide.