Transborder data flows offer opportunities, such as health data sharing, but they also bring risk.Research has explored the tensions between transnational and regional linkages, striving tounderstand when transborder flows of data bring benefits or drawbacks. By viewing global dataflows as a social change process, this commentary strives to complement existing perspectives.It advocates embedding data studies within the framework of social transformation theory totranscend the distinction between theory and its empirical application across diverse social andcultural contexts. Inspired by Stephen Castles’ approach to human migration, it introduces theconcept of ‘social data migration’ as a dynamic social transformation. This approach enhancesour understanding of the complex, interconnected, and context-dependent nature oftransnational flows of data across platforms amid rapid global changes