Alleged misuse of personal data to influence political events has led to calls for transnational data protection laws.

Changes to international laws regarding personal information and trade secrets have been coming thick and fast, notably in the European Union. Much of this ties into concerns about what data aggregators like Google and Facebook are doing with personal information. While the Cambridge Analytica scandal raised concerns about interference with the 2016 American presidential election and the Brexit vote, new laws on data could also impose serious obligations upon small companies endeavouring to do business in an international environment.

The AIIA for WA’s Flavia Bellieni Zimmerman spoke with prominent intellectual property and information technology lawyer David Stewart on the challenges of personal data laws and what the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal means for political elections and businesses.

David Stewart is Principal at Bennett + Co, Corporate and Commercial Lawyers, and an adjunct professor in law at Murdoch University. He works with laws and contracts relating to software, artificial intelligence and machine learning, data mining, social media and search engine optimisation, trade secrets protocols and other areas of intellectual property and technology law.

Interview by Flavia Bellieni Zimmermann.

Video and editing by Nancye Miles-Tweedie.