The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became applicable in May 2018. Due to the GDPR's extraterritorial scope, which could result in massive fines for U.S. companies, comparative data privacy law is of great current interest. In June 2018, California passed its own Consumer Privacy Act, echoing some of the provisions of the GDPR. Despite the many articles comparing the two schemes of law, little attention has been given to the foundation of these laws, that is, what exactly encompasses the data referred to by these laws? By understanding how the term “personal data” or “personal information” is defined in both jurisdictions, and why these definitions and the treatment of protected data are so different, companies can strategize to take advantage of these developments in the European Union. After explaining the differences in how data is treated in the United States and the European Union by exploring the definitions, regulations, and court cases, we will explore the five legal strategy pathways that companies might pursue with respect to the legal aspects of data transfer and privacy law compliance. While these strategies range from ignoring the law to adopting the European model worldwide, this analysis of legal strategy reveals a means for companies to gain a competitive advantage through their adoption of a worldwide compliance scheme.

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个人数据和GDPR：为美国公司提供竞争优势

欧盟的《通用数据保护条例》（GDPR）于2018年5月生效。由于GDPR的域外范围可能会对美国公司造成巨额罚款，因此比较数据隐私法引起了人们的极大关注。2018年6月，加利福尼亚通过了自己的《消费者隐私法案》，呼应了GDPR的某些规定。尽管有许多文章比较了这两种法律方案，但很少关注这些法律的基础，也就是说，这些法律所指的数据究竟包含什么？通过了解两个辖区中如何定义“个人数据”或“个人信息”一词，以及为什么这些定义和受保护数据的区别如此不同，公司可以制定战略以利用欧盟的这些发展。在探讨了定义，法规和法院案件后，解释了美国和欧盟在数据处理方式上的差异之后，我们将探讨公司在数据传输和传输的法律方面可能采取的五种法律策略途径。遵守隐私法。虽然这些策略的范围从忽略法律到在全球范围内采用欧洲模式，但对法律策略的这种分析揭示了公司通过采用全球合规计划而获得竞争优势的方法。