Data protection in the Asia-Pacific region

The increasing reliance on technology as a means of conducting cross-border businesses has spurred on the development of data protection and privacy laws in many countries across the globe. In Asia, however, many countries today still have no or extremely limited data protection laws. Cultural attitudes towards the concept of autonomy and the well-established right of certain governments to monitor and scrutinise its people in certain countries have been partly to blame. However, in order to remain economically viable, the businesses and government of these countries must be able to provide protections which are at least similar to those afforded by the data protection laws of their business counterparts. This article examines the effectiveness and relevance of the APEC Privacy Framework and the state of the data protection laws in eight Asia-Pacific countries today.     

Asia–Pacific news

This column provides a country by country analysis of the latest legal developments, cases and issues relevant to the IT, media and telecommunications' industries in key jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific region. The articles appearing in this column are intended to serve as ‘alerts’ and are not submitted as detailed analyses of cases or legal developments.     

Geographic proximity and university–industry interaction: the case of Mexico

This paper analyses whether geographic proximity favours specific channels of university–industry interaction when firms collaborate with universities and with government research centres. Our study also provides insights regarding the relationship between the associated channel and the role of firms’ absorptive capacities. Our results show that firms with higher levels of absorptive capacities tend to interact more independently of their location. Additionally, interaction with non-local universities generally includes the transfer of codified forms of knowledge, while links with local universities includes more tacit forms of knowledge. Policy implications derived from this analysis focus on fostering interaction at local and non-local levels.     

Legal developments and industry issues relevant to IT,media and telecommunications law in key jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific

This column provides a country by country analysis of the latest legal developments, cases and issues relevant to the IT, media and telecommunications' industries in key jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific region. The articles appearing in this column are intended to serve as ‘alerts’ and are not submitted as detailed analyses of cases or legal developments.     

Testing for genetic structure in different urban Argentinian populations

Fifteen autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) markers (D3S1358, HUMTH01, D21S11, D18S51, PENTA E, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, D16S539, CSF1PO, PENTA D, HUMvWA, D8S1179, HUMTPOX, FGA) were analyzed in 1734 individuals living in urban areas of cities from six different Argentinian provinces (Buenos Aires, Neuquén, Tucumán, La Pampa, San Luis, Santa Cruz) in order to determine if a common urban database could be used in Argentina for forensic purposes. Frequencies estimates, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), and other parameters of forensic interest were computed. Comparisons between the six populations, and with published data from one Native American population from Argentina and other urban populations from Argentina and Europe were also performed. Our results reveal evidences for population structure, both when testing for genetic differentiation and when comparing frequencies distributions between different pairs of populations. Therefore, caution should be taken when using a common pooled database with general forensic purposes in Argentina.