New technologies, generally speaking, do not respect old boundaries. That can create great opportunities, but it can also raise unexpected challenges. The internet has global reach and provides on-demand access to a world of content that, a few decades ago, would have been unimaginable. At least that’s true of the internet in America, but the internet in more restrictive countries—including China—is quite different, and the content available there is far more tightly controlled. One consequence of the ready availability of this global resource in the pocket of every American is that we may tend to forget, as legal matter, that international borders still exist and that they still have very serious consequences in our technological lives. Just ask the 40 million Americans who use (and adore) TikTok, the social media app now facing a potential ban in the U.S. because of its Chinese ownership.

When providing legal advice to companies in this space, these issues can be particularly difficult to pin down. Firms entering transactions or collecting data in one jurisdiction through an app or internet presence may need to consider the laws and regulations in dozens (or hundreds) of other jurisdictions not only around the country, but around the world. The users of apps or websites should (ideally) be at least generally aware of the laws and regulations governing how their data and information can be stored and used, which varies widely across the U.S., Asia, and the European Union. As a practical matter, it is hard enough for companies to keep track of all this, and all but impossible for users to do so.

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