Businesses to WH: Stem tide of data flow rules

The Business Roundtable is launching a new push against local data server requirements in the United States and abroad. In a report, the group, which includes Microsoft, AT&T and Verizon, argued that government-imposed limits on data flows across international borders are “bad for U.S. technology and commerce and, in turn, bad for economic growth and job creation.”

Several countries have either enacted or are considering laws and requirements about data flow across their borders, according to the report. For example, Russia requires infrastructure for core payment processing services to be in Russian Federation territory, the report said. “The core issue is economic growth,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chairman and CEO and the chairman of Business Roundtable’s Global IT Policy Subcommittee. Stephenson, speaking on behalf of the subcommittee, said, “A globally networked economy dramatically improves the speed of commerce and drives prosperity around the world. Local data server requirements add extra steps and put these things at risk. So, it’s important to everyone’s economic future they not become a systemic problem.”