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Last week, a group of us found ourselves on the "little red dot" that is Singapore, host of the Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules Forum's spring workshop.
In place of the usual Monday blues, we found ourselves blended in with the lush greenery of Sentosa Island, before easel boards and sketched ideas for the launch of the Global CBPR certification programs.
Chair of the Global CBPR Forum and U.S. Department of Commerce Director of Global Data Policy Shannon Coe held the brush, painting us a picture of the world's first voluntary, scalable, accountability-based certification scheme that would aid businesses in navigating cross-border data flows and the increasingly difficult compliance standards for protection of personal data internationally.
The crayon box of CBPR Forum participants comprises a spectrum of vibrancy from Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and the U.S. The United Kingdom, Bermuda, Dubai International Financial Centre and Mauritius have also been embossed as associates. Thailand and Nigeria have traced in similar intentions to join the forum this year.
The workshop canvas outlined new shades to the color palette of program requirements, including those on sensitive personal data, children's privacy and breach notification. Frequency of certification, and third-party processing, were also penciled in as fresh hues for consideration.
With an imprint of commitment toward interoperability and network effects adding to the gradient and vibrant rainbow of participants from both states and businesses alike, the future of the Global CBPR system appears bright, and very rosy, indeed.
Charmian Aw, CIPP/A, CIPP/E, CIPP/US, CIPM, FIP, is a partner at Hogan Lovells.
This article originally appeared in the Asia-Pacific Dashboard Digest, a free weekly IAPP newsletter. Subscriptions to this and other IAPP newsletters can be found here.