Summary: | The regulatory approaches of the EU and the US in the realm of personal
data remain to be studied. This article analyzes regulatory approaches
of the two digital economy giants from a comparative perspective. It
finds that even though huge divergences exist in the substantive rules
of personal data protection between the EU and the US, they share the
de facto common strategies that have been applied to the regulation.
In particular, the regulation focus of personal data has been shifted to
the internal data protection systems of private sectors. For regulators,
collaborative governance and contextual approaches are the preference in
comparison with traditional top-down regulation. On this basis, this article
analyzes the current regulatory approaches of the EU and the US. As
articulated by Ari Ezra Waldman, the shift of regulatory approaches can
be categorized as a “second wave of privacy law.” This article also points
out the potential pitfalls the current approaches may fall into
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