Data Sovereignty vs Data Residency vs Data Localization: What’s The Difference?

As the world’s technology continues to move towards a more cloud-based environment, users are increasingly having to grapple with the difference between data sovereignty, data residency and data localization. Numerous international policies, including the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, are being implemented in order to ensure that users have full control over their data.

In a world where it is becoming more common to store and share personal data online, it is essential that enterprises and individuals are aware of the different meanings of the terms data sovereignty, data residency and data localization.

What is Data Sovereignty?

Data sovereignty is the concept of a country having the right to control the data that is within its borders. This includes data that is created, stored and processed within the country. According to cybersecurity expert, Andrzej Kawalec, “Data sovereignty is the notion that data stored in a computer has the same rights and regulations as tangible property in relation to the territory in which it resides.”.

What is Data Residency?

Data residency is the opposite of data sovereignty, meaning that the data is stored and processed in a different country than that of the user. Generally, this is more beneficial for organizations that require access to data from different countries around the world, such as large international corporations. The company does not have to worry about complying to the laws of the countries in which their data is being stored.

What is Data Localization?

Data localization is very similar to data residency but the data is stored and processed in specific geographical locations. This is usually done to comply with local regulations such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This allows businesses to comply with the laws of the country where the server is located while still being able to access the data from anywhere in the world. Humayun Shahryar, the chief product and security officer of Preempt Security, explains that “Data localization is an important concept and is necessary for many organizations due to government laws or policies that require data to be stored in their country.”

Conclusion

Data sovereignty, data residency and data localization are three terms that are essential to understand in the current digital age. Data sovereignty addresses the rights of countries over data within their borders, data residency focuses on the storage and processing of data in different countries while data localization allows organizations to comply with the laws of the local country. Understanding the differences between these terms is essential for any organization that wishes to ensure full control over its data.

Source1: https://www.informationexcellence.com/Cyber_security/Data_Sovereignty_Data_Residency_Data_Localization//
Source2: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2018/07/11/data-localization-gdpr/