Key considerations when setting up model data protection clauses

Privacy officers at multinational organizations can face challenges lawfully transferring personal data across multiple jurisdictions within their corporate group, as many jurisdictions have implemented — or are planning to implement — rules prohibiting such international transfers.

Implementing contractual clauses that govern the processing and security of personal data between a data exporter and importer, like the EU's standard contractual clauses or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' model contractual clauses, is one solution.

While privacy officers can attempt to set up these model data protection clauses or engage a law firm to assist, many decisions will need to be made and supporting mechanisms that external legal counsel might not be able to help with or those from nonlegal or noncorporate backgrounds may find especially challenging.

Think about the long term

Implementing model data protection clauses can be a costly and time-consuming endeavor. They are also unlikely to be one-off capital investments when accounting for changes in the clauses themselves, an organizations' expansion into a new jurisdiction or a jurisdiction’s adoption of its own prohibitions on international transfers unless its model data protection clauses are followed.

To future-proof and minimize unnecessary subsequent costs, think about how to configure the contract through which the model data protection clauses are executed. It is possible to create a contract so that each jurisdictions' model data protection clauses sit in an appendix.

This means: