Data Protection Likely to Emerge with a New Relevance

July 8, 2020

Things are tough. It perfectly understandable that you, your staff, and your customers are unsettled. It’s going to be that way for a while.

As it stands, there’s no shortage of experts talking about the business trends that are going to continue afterward, such as the growth of remote working and the reduction of business travel.

On the other hand, not many (if any) are talking about the trends interrupted by the shutdown that are likely to come back as strong or even stronger than they were before.

Prior to the shutdown, countries around world were generating data protection bills and privacy regulations at a record pace. So were state governments across the U.S.

A limited number of such bills, such the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and New York’s Shield Act were enacted. Most of these bills, however, were still winding their way through their state legislatures when COVID-19 took the wind out of their sails. At the time, no one doubted these bills would pass. It was only a matter of time. Had the shutdown not happened, many would already be law.

It’s natural to think about (and worry about) the trends emerging from the shutdown and how they will impact your business. It would be negligent not too. But it’s also important to realize that some very beneficial priorities that were lost during the shutdown will indeed return… possibly with a vengeance.

Concerns over neglected data security and privacy issues during shutdown have popped up regularly. Once things start returning to normal, whatever that looked like, this concern combined with new, ambitious data protection laws, will make for a business climate ready to reward service providers that have the right qualifications.

By: Bob Johnson, i-SIGMA CEO