Data drive scientific research and fuel artificial intelligence (AI), spur productivity and innovation, confer competitive advantage and contribute to market power. They help track the spread of disease and target health service delivery and achieve sustainability goals  Despite the many examples of how effectively using data is changing the world, the opportunities remains largely untapped. The uptake of crucial data processing technologies like data analytics and AI for instance remains skewed towards larger firms. Furthermore, data governance frameworks developed in silos can fail to address broader policy issues effectively. The OECD’s evidence-based analysis and recommendations help governments navigate policy tensions and realise the full benefits of data for growth and well-being, while protecting individuals’ and organisations’ rights and interests.

Cross-border data flows are essential for global economic and social activities, underpinning daily business operations, logistics, supply chains and international communication. However, they are also seen to amplify challenges for privacy and data protection, digital and national security, regulatory reach, trade, competition, and industrial policy. Countries face the challenge of fostering a global digital environment that enables the movement of data across international borders while ensuring that, upon crossing a border, data are granted the desired oversight and protection – a concept also known as data free flow with trust (DFFT).

The OECD supports efforts to advance DFFT through empirical work to map emerging regulations and understand their impact; as well as through DFFT Expert Community, which provides a space for stakeholders to inform the development of concrete responses to practical challenges related to DFFT.

Data governance is increasingly critical for fostering data-driven innovations across sectors, jurisdictions and policy domains from trade to competition and public governance. The OECD's evidence-based analysis and recommendations help governments navigate policy tensions and realise the full benefits of data for growth and well-being, while protecting individuals' and organisations rights and interests. 

The OECD Recommendation on Enhancing Access to and Sharing of Data is the first internationally agreed upon set of principles and policy guidance of its kind. It calls on governments to:

• reinforce trust across the data ecosystem;
• stimulate investment in data and incentivise data sharing; and
• foster the effective and responsible use of data across society including across borders.

Data have been compared variously to oil, sunlight and infrastructure. They also share some characteristics with ideas or knowledge. However, while there are parallels in each case, data have specific characteristics that distinguish them from all of the above. Data have a specific combination of economic characteristics that distinguish them from other production inputs and have implications for the measurement of their value. 

Data can be used repeatedly, by different actors and at the same time without being depleted or eliminated. At the same time, data is generally collected by organisations who are incentivized to prevent other people or institutions from accessing their data. This dynamic implies that value creation from data depends on the extent to which data are shared, used and re-used throughout the economy. As a result, the legal framework regulating access to and ownership of data is key to unlocking the value of data.  

The OECD Recommendation on Enhancing Access to and Sharing of Data adopted in October 2021 is the first internationally agreed upon set of principles and policy guidance on how governments can maximize the cross-sectoral benefits of all types of data while effectively protecting stakeholders' rights.

The Privacy Guidelines, initially adopted in 1980 and revised in 2013, are the cornerstone of the OECD’s work on privacy and are recognised as the global minimum standard for privacy and data protection. They are a solid foundation for building effective protection and trust for individuals and developing common international approaches to transborder data flows.

The Recommendation aims to foster international co-operation among Privacy Enforcement Authorities (PEAs), recognising that the cross-border enforcement of privacy laws is central to effectively protecting privacy and promoting the free flow of data with trust.