4 data privacy trends to watch in 2020

If anyone had doubts as to whether data privacy is “the new normal,” the events of 2019 put them to rest.

Regulatory authorities in Europe proved that GDPR means business, issuing $100M-plus fines against global heavy-hitters Marriott and British Airways. The state of California continued preparations to bring GDPR-like regulations to the United States with CCPA, which goes into effect January 1, 2020. Maine, Nevada, and Vermont passed new state laws while pressure for a U.S. federal law continued to mount. The New York and Washington state legislatures proposed laws that were in some respects more ambitious than CCPA, and while those bills did not pass during their respective 2019 legislative sessions, they could signal a trend towards even more comprehensive privacy legislation.

As we embark on a new decade, we’ve identified four trends that companies will want to watch as data privacy becomes standard practice for businesses of all sizes across all industries.

1. More laws on the way

Back when businesses were first starting to prepare for GDPR, some organizations addressed the regulation by segmenting their EU customers and implementing privacy measures for those populations … only to have to repeat the exercise when CCPA came along.

Data privacy is no longer about complying with a single law or adjusting practices for a single group of data subjects. With more state laws on the way and the possibility of federal legislation looming, it’s just a matter of time before nearly every company is affected by one or more data privacy regulations.

While these laws may differ on the details, they all have one thing in common. They all require companies to get a handle on personal data — how and why they gather it, where it goes (within and outside of your organization), who has access to it, what they do with it, how they protect it, and what happens when they no longer need it. By mapping the “big picture” of their entire data lifecycles — starting with business processes — and conducting a thorough inventory, organizations can lay a foundation that enables them to adapt as new regulations come about.

2. Privacy litigation on the rise

Forrester Research recently confirmed that consumers are increasingly concerned about how their data is collected and used — and increasingly willing to take active measures to protect themselves. The result? Forrester predicts that 2020 will see a 300 percent increase in privacy class-action lawsuits.

Unlike GDPR, CCPA specifically grants a private right of action to residents affected by data breaches, providing for statutory damages of up to $750 per consumer per incident. If that doesn’t sound like much, consider this: The average data breach in the United States involves around 25,000 records. Given that California accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. population, a single breach could result in over $2 million in damages alone under CCPA, over and above any regulatory fines.

For organizations who have yet to prioritize data privacy in the hope of flying under regulatory authorities’ radar, the very real risk of privacy litigation and the associated costs should be a wake-up call.

To read through the final 2 trends for 2020, read more here: https://www.logic2020.com/insight/data-privacy-trends-2020?utm_source=social&utm_medium=Medium&utm_campaign=Data_Privacy