Christopher Millard: "Forced Localization of Online Services – Is Privacy the Real Driver?"

Date: 

Monday, April 24, 2017, 11:30am to 1:00pm

Location: 

Maxwell Dworkin 119

Abstract: Borders (and walls!) need not be physical. The vision of an open, global, Internet is increasingly threatened by construction of virtual barriers between countries. Mistrust regarding the security of cloud computing and other online services is widespread and the temperature of the global debate has risen dramatically since Snowden and other revelations of systematic, mass surveillance. Restrictions on data flows between the US and EU remain contentious. Extreme examples of forced data localization include a proposal for a German-only 'Internetz', and a recent Russian law requiring the use of local servers for certain types of processing. In 2018 a new EU Regulation on data protection comes into force with global reach and substantial penalties for non-compliance. This talk will explore the motivations behind Internet 'Balkanization' initiatives and will provide examples of alternatives to location-based data sovereignty rules.

Bio: Christopher Millard is Professor of Privacy and Information Law in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), and is Senior Counsel to the law firm Bristows. His first book, Legal Protection of Computer Programs and Data (1985), was one of the earliest international comparative law works in the field and he has since published widely on technology, communications, privacy, e-commerce, and Internet law. Christopher leads the QMUL Cloud Legal Project and is Joint Director of the Microsoft Cloud Computing Research Centre. He is currently working on contractual and regulatory issues in cloud computing, the internet of things, and machine learning. He is co-author and editor of Cloud Computing Law (Oxford University Press, 2013) and is a founding editor of both the International Journal of Law and IT and of International Data Privacy Law. He is a Fellow and former Chair of the Society for Computers and Law, a past-President of the International Federation of Computer Law Associations, and a former Chair of the Technology Law Committee of the International Bar Association.