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The evolution of privacy regulation: convergence and divergence in the transatlantic space
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Beaumier, Guillaume (2020) The evolution of privacy regulation: convergence and divergence in the transatlantic space. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3678279~S15
Abstract
This thesis explores the evolution of privacy regulations in the transatlantic space since the adoption of the European Data Directive in 1995 up until the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation in 2016. In doing so, it more specifically investigates how the rules governing the use of personal data by private companies in the United States and the European Union were formed through the interactions between public and private actors in both jurisdictions. Looking at the process of rule formation, previous works have traditionally viewed national regulatory systems as discrete units of analysis that could affect one another and yet always remained fundamentally distinct. The starting point of this thesis is different. It considers that each jurisdiction’s regulatory process is continuously shaped by decisions taken in the other and that through their interactions they actually form a complex governance system that evolves based on two joint processes: exploitation and exploration. The former emphasizes that privacy regulators will generally tend to exploit the data protection rules of those with whom they previously had direct interactions. Meanwhile, the latter highlights that when preexisting rules prove to be insufficient, privacy regulators will explore new ones based on the very same interactions and relation to the broader system. The formation of data protection rules is thus always understood in relational or systemic terms, rather than an individual process. Based on a mix of content and network analysis, I further demonstrate that by exploiting preexisting rules private actors offered a new institutional avenue for public rules to cross national frontiers and promote greater regulatory convergence. At the same time, the multiplication of privacy regulations and data protection rules adopted by private actors created second-order information asymmetries, which in turn limited their interest in exploring new ideas and experimenting with new data protection rules. In addition to contributing to the literature on privacy and introducing a novel database on data protection rules adopted over the last 20 years in the transatlantic area, this thesis highlights how growing economic interdependence upends national regulatory processes and brings into question many of the assumed boundaries in the study of international
political economy.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | J Political Science > JC Political theory | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Privacy, Right of, Data protection, International economic relations, Business enterprises -- Security measures | ||||
Official Date: | December 2020 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Politics and International Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Morin, Jean-Frédéric ; Watson, Matthew, 1969- | ||||
Extent: | xv, 277 leaves : illustrations, charts | ||||
Language: | eng |
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