Privacy as a basic human need has always existed and is crucial for the development of the individual as well as society. But technological developments such as the spread of computers and more recently the internet pose a threat to its protection. Attempts at regulating the collection, storage, transmission and use of person-related data to protect privacy in the face of such challenges have taken many forms which can analytically be distinguished; but the simultaneous existence of international, supranational and national level attempts have led to the emergence of a complex situation in reality. Internationally, voluntary “codes of practice” coexist with binding rules of differing legal quality; nationally, comprehensive legislation spanning the private and public sectors, with implementation overseen by an agency, can be distinguished from piecemeal legislation without specific overview. Such differences, together with competing economic and security interests as well as variations in the ultimate justification of the protection of privacy, have led to international conflicts around the transmission of person-related data for commercial and security purposes. Given the increasing economic importance of such data, as well as rising sensitivity towards the protection of privacy in many populations, regulatory competition in this field is likely to increase in the future, while the direction of that dynamic is difficult to predict.