But if the laws were repealed tomorrow, most of the nations of the world would make no move to take advantage of the respite, and any that did would be in danger of finding their credit vanishing.

Some countries such as Australia and New Zealand have longstanding privacy laws, but many emerging nations have yet to roll out fully fledged versions of their own.

Generally there was a belief that the new nations should be sovereign and independent states, large enough to be economically viable and integrated by a particular set of laws.