Understanding the implications of data sovereignty

The internet continues to drive larger social opportunities. At the same time it creates new business at a smaller level. However, it has also been seen that social media has had great influence upon certain masses; they spend money for increasing likes and followers. The genuinely of actual friends on Facebook or Twitter members, if you ask anyone is hardly 5% to 6% at max, it could be upto 10% as per the survey. At the same time, it brings opportunities for the software companies in terms of increasing the likes and making various boots for increasing tweets on Twitter.

The growth in cloud computing services and the trend towards digital transformation has increased the complexities around where data is stored and how it is transmitted. Greater connectivity provides more potential to attack vectors. Neither government nor the private sector can deal with the scope and scale of cyber threats alone. It is possible with the help of collaboration. Some government actions might prove to be positive. There is also a scenario where, for example, data protection laws, liability, and consumer protection laws are supportive of cyber security strategies, and where governments promote and enable the most efficient solutions. Data sovereignty is indeed of concern to the customers as they seek to comply with a series of often conflicting laws around the globe.

Data sovereignty presents technical as well as the legal challenges when moving on-premises systems and with information stored on the cloud. There is no United Nations resolution, European Union mandate, or international trade agreement that provides one blanket set of data sovereignty requirements that all countries follow. Privacy and data-hosting laws vary by country and state, and some are stricter than others. Our state (or country, or regional authority) says that data can never leave our jurisdiction, which means we can’t store it in the cloud either. A million dollar question comes to mins, where will this data reside then? Are our cloud services providers transparent?

We can see one example in FinTech explosion in Hong Kong, where HSBC launched a voice-based biometric identification service for customers, following the successful launch of the technology in the UK last year. Innovations such as these are part of a FinTech explosion in the region, and with this increasing reliance on the cloud to store all the data associated with that explosion, it is no surprise Gartner believes that by 2025, cloud-based solutions will account for 65% of the total market spend in financial management applications.

End-to-end encryption and balanced security -

Keeping data secure while in transit, as well as when stored is crucial as part of a holistic security strategy. Securing the links between interconnected data centers is an important part of a comprehensive approach to data sovereignty. A newer approach is to deploy encryption at the optical infrastructure layer, which will encrypt traffic without adding complex routing or security protocols. As more customers move into the cloud, encrypting data in-flight at the optical layer is becoming a popular solution for interconnecting networks.

Various countries have come up with their Data Sovereignty Laws -

New cybersecurity law in China has been largely touted by Beijing as a milestone in data privacy regulations, but critics say authorities haven't provided enough information about how the wide-reaching law will be implemented. That's a big concern, as failure to comply carries fines that could hit 1 million yuan (about $150,000) and potential criminal charges. The law focuses on protecting personal information and individual privacy, and standardizes the collection and usage of personal information. As such, companies will now be required to introduce data protection measures, and sensitive data - for instance, information on Chinese citizens or relating to national security - must be stored on domestic servers.

In European union (EU), the law applies to any company that deals with private data on EU citizens, even if that company is located outside of the EU and the law comes with some stiff penalties for those who fail to comply. It carries fines of up to €20 million or 4% of annual revenue for the most offenses, whichever is larger.

However, the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai has called the data localization and data transfer regulations "unnecessarily onerous," with a potential impact on cross-border trade worth billions of dollars.

The reason could be - Globalization of the internet and the ability to move data across borders is also transforming the nature of international trade which means businesses can use the internet (particularly digital platforms) to export. Take the case of e-commerce interaction that involves the purchase, payment and possible delivery online which requires data such as the name, address and financial details of the customer. The fact is data flows enable the delivery of digital services. Such digital services can improve the efficiency and competitiveness of businesses and their capacity to compete in domestic and international markets. Hence the word Data sovereignty: Data residency: Data Ownership: Information security: Data custodian and lastly Data stewardship has become the talk among the think tanks and policy advocates. The year 2018 could see more and more countries coming up with their polices into Data Sovereignty, where 80 countries have already framed their policies.

Trade was once largely confined to advanced economies and their large multinational companies. Today, globalization without boundary and internet has opened the door to developing countries, to small companies and start-ups, and to billions of individuals. Millions of small and midsize enterprises worldwide have turned themselves into exporters by joining e-commerce marketplaces such as Alibaba, Amazon, eBay, Flipkart, and Rakuten (the Company is planning a new cryptocurrency called Rakuten Coin - built on blockchain technology and the company’s existing loyalty program, Rakuten Super Points - which it plans to use to encourage loyalty services globally and to help customers to buy goods across different Rakuten services and markets).Approximately 12 percent of the global goods trade is conducted via international e-commerce. Even the smallest enterprises can be born global and today, even the smallest firms can compete with the largest multinationals.