UN privacy expert warns of legal gaps in global collection of personal data
A report presented to the UN Human Rights Council calls for stronger international rules to address the growing cross-border collection of personal data in the digital environment.
A United Nations expert has warned that existing legal frameworks do not adequately address the global collection of personal data, raising risks for individuals’ privacy in the digital age.
In a report presented on 11 March 2026 to the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council, Ana Brian Nougrères, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, examined how personal data is collected across borders and highlighted significant regulatory gaps in current international rules.
The report focuses on a growing phenomenon made possible by the internet. Today, organisations and individuals can collect personal information from people located in other countries without physically operating in those jurisdictions. According to the expert, this type of international data collection differs from traditional cross-border data transfers, where data moves from one organisation to another across national borders.
Existing privacy rules typically regulate international data transfers, i.e., situations in which a company or institution sends personal data to another entity in another country. However, Nougrères notes that these rules do not cover many cases where data is collected directly from individuals online by actors located abroad.
‘The internet has created new challenges for legal systems,’ the expert said, explaining that billions of people with internet access can collect personal data about others located in different countries, often without clear oversight by national authorities.
Because there may be no identifiable ‘sender’ of data within the country where the individual is located, regulators often struggle to enforce existing privacy protections. As a result, individuals may be exposed to privacy violations without clear legal remedies.
To address these challenges, the Special Rapporteur called for stronger international cooperation and new legal frameworks. The report urges states to consider negotiating an international treaty on the protection of personal data, specifically addressing the risks created by cross-border data collection in the digital environment.
The expert also recommends that countries update their national privacy laws so they can apply extraterritorially, meaning that data protection rules would still apply when personal data about their residents is collected by organisations based abroad.
The new report builds on Nougrères’ earlier work presented to the UN General Assembly in 2024, which proposed updating the UN’s existing guiding principles on the regulation of computerised personal data files.
UN Special Rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine specific thematic issues or country situations. They work independently and are not part of the UN staff, although their work is supported by the UN human rights office.
