Cyber Defense eMagazine August 2019

Privacy Regulations Are Popping Up Everywhere
How to Ensure That They Don’t Dampen Innovation
By Isaac Kohen, Teramind
The implementation of Europe’s expansive General Data Protection Regulation was a clear harbinger
that the tech sector was heading in a radically different direction from the lax data standards that governed
its first several decades of growth.
Of course, what primarily began as a European mandate quickly left its shores as shifting consumer
sentiment and a broad recognition that we needed to place some parameters on the way we handle
people’s valuable personal data became inevitable.
In the United States, The California Consumer Privacy Act will place data privacy restrictions in Silicon
Valley’s own backyard, and, similar to the state’s impact on the auto industry, it will have repercussions
for the rest of the country. Collectively, more than 80 countries have data privacy laws on the books.
In the wake of egregious data breaches at companies like Equifax and Marriott, as well as moral failings
from companies like Facebook, it was clear that something needed to be done. However, it was less
obvious how that would affect the businesses that these laws regulate.
So far, the results are mixed.
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