California’s laws are a significant driver of the growth in the data privacy movement. The enactment of strict enforcement regulations of the California law is another critical step in the protection of people’s data privacy rights. On the other hand, the federal government continues to be all talk and no action. Industry experts espouse many reasons why the government must take action including the importance of regulating data brokers that traffic in the collection and sale of data.
“California’s privacy law raises risks of legal action and fines over data collection,” ZDNet – August 5th, 2021
Continuing to lead the charge, California has added teeth to its data privacy law with the announcement of strict enforcement actions for violations. Non-compliance can lead to fines, legal actions, and other remedies. Companies should take heed to California’s warnings and ensure their data privacy regulations are up to snuff.
“Privacy Legislation: Data Brokers Regulatory Authority,” The National Law Review- August 5th, 2021
Frustration concerning the federal government’s failure to pass data privacy legislation continues to mount. Many are hoping the authority the Federal Trade Commission has over data brokers that compile and sell data from public and non-public sources will drive the federal government to finally pass legislation. Simply, with these brokers largely acting without oversight and the continued appalling misuse of data, the federal government cannot continue to sit on the sidelines.
Enabling consumer data ownership should be embraced as it will be good for the success of businesses. Unfortunately, it will still be a long road ahead as many companies are not even taking data privacy seriously let alone consumer data ownership. On the positive side, the fines for breaches are escalating and will likely only continue to rise.
“Rethinking Privacy: The Road To Data Ownership,” Forbes- August 2nd, 2021
Staggeringly, 87% of Americans view data privacy as a human right, a considerable increase since the privacy movement has grown significantly. Fortunately, more and more companies have embraced improvement over the collection and use of data as a great business opportunity to augment the number of loyal customers. The next step is the development of the data ownership market. Data ownership will also be good for business as consumers will feel more connected to businesses collecting their data as they share in the value and sale of the data.
“Amazon slapped with biggest GDPR data privacy fine, ever,” TechHQ- August 2nd, 2021
Punishment for violations of laws and regulations is the most important tool in forcing change with how data is collected and used. To date, the meager fines that have been assessed has resulted in minimal changes. However, the tide is turning. As an example, fines for violating the GDPR, Europe’s data protection regulation, have massively grown. This past week, Amazon was assessed a fine of almost $900 million for a data privacy breach. Though this fine is a drop in the bucket for Amazon with a $1.7 trillion value, hopefully the negative financial and reputational impact will force Amazon and other big tech companies to truly start to make changes to their data privacy practices.
“Zoom settles ‘zoombombing’ and data privacy lawsuit for $85 million,” CNN- August, 2nd 2021
As a result of sharing personal data with Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn which opened the door for hackers in what is known as “zoombombing,” Zoom has settled a lawsuit for $85 million on behalf of those impacted by these actions. Zoom’s hefty settlement in this case represents the power of private lawsuits, which will continue to multiply as more instances of data misuse are uncovered.