Global privacy issues are becoming more complex by the day. Organizations can’t afford to be in the dark regarding the unique, multidimensional, and nuanced characteristics of existing and emerging regulations. There is an immense depth and breadth of knowledge needed to keep up with both new commerce implications while also demonstrating respect and adhering to regulatory protections of individual and organizational data, which can vary greatly between geographies.

What’s driving new privacy and data protection efforts? Several factors.

Global data flows: Trade data increasingly migrates across borders and will demand more international cooperation and coordination with data-protection laws. If I buy a sweater from a vendor in Ireland and live in California, there are two different regulations at work in just that one transaction.

Growing awareness of and expectations of data privacy and demands for greater transparency and accountability will push organizations to improve their data operating practices.

Technological evolution: Developments in computer science, including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and biometrics, have changed attitudes around what needs to be protected. This poses new privacy challenges to the old ways of organizing dataflows, which simply do not work in today’s interconnected world, especially with personally identifiable data sitting in massive global data clouds.

Regulatory evolutions: As new attitudes and technologies like GenAI emerge, governments and regulation authorities will be constantly evolving legislation to address new privacy problems and safeguard individuals. This requires constant monitoring and adjustments by organizations to stay ahead of fines and reputational damage.

Foundational Regulations Every Organization Must Understand

Multiple core legislations already significantly influence the global privacy landscape, including:

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) (EU): GDPR is a harmonized data privacy law and an enormous piece of human rights-based change. As of 2018, all data controllers are required to comply when using the personal data of all EU citizens. This pushes organizations to adhere to strict privacy by consent, data minimization, and data deletion requirements.

Data Protection Act 2018 (UK): The UK Data Protection Act implements GDPR and provides further detail on the information rights of individuals and the responsibilities of organizations when handling personal data that must be considered.

California Consumer Privacy Act (US): This California law, effective as of 2020, grants certain rights to consumers for their personal information (e.g., right to know, right to delete, and right to opt-out)​

Here, ‘personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’) by references such as a name, an identification number, location data, and online identifiers or factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

There are also ‘special categories of personal data’ related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data processed to uniquely identify a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

LGPD (General Data Protection Law): This is the Brazilian law equivalent to GDPR that protects Brazilian citizens’ personal data. It defines the rights and obligations of organizations collecting personal data from citizens, on and offline.

Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (India): This law, while perhaps a much less developed version of GDPR, does provide a regulatory framework on which a better-articulated regime can be built.

The Balancing Act Around Critical Use Cases

Data is everywhere and informs so much of our lives. This has put a larger burden on organizations at every level of society to understand their potential exposure to compliance risks and consistently apply policies and technology to safeguard data

Medicine: Patients’ health data (e.g., medical records, genetic data) must be kept private to ensure physical well-being and avoid misuse related to areas like insurance, employment and receiving benefits.

Finance: The number of rules and regulations in this industry match the level of collection and management of customer data that takes place every second of every day. Fraud protection, anti-money laundering and ethical practices are all regulated and support the consumer trust and confidence that is the lifeblood of financial institutions.

E-commerce: A retailer necessarily collects great amounts of personal data to match buyers and sellers, and even facilitate transactions without friction.

Marketing and Advertising: Ideally, advertisers will gain the ability to target messages very sharply. Striking a balance between the ability to curate experiences and the protection of consumers’ privacy is crucial, especially when crossing international borders into the EU and needing to consider where data is stored and how it is used.

Social Media: Social media companies collect and process immense volumes of data related to user behaviors. Unethical use of data is a high risk in these platforms given their ubiquity and how many users cross different age groups and geographies.

Looking Ahead  

For each part of the global privacy matrix – flagship legislation, use-case categories, and local, regional, and global differences – attention to the whole is required. Only then can organizations deploy strategies that stake out a defensible position where privacy interests are balanced against service and commerce goals while also building and sustaining stakeholder trust.

To explore how Pentaho can help enable your organization to become data-fit and manage regulatory compliance data challenges, request a demo.