Data Privacy Trends to Watch in 2022-2025

What to Expect in the Years to Come?

From the perspective of data processors, the data privacy environment is getting harsher every year, with GDPR penalties becoming a more frequent occasion.
Pandemics 2020 has challenged organizations globally with the “Adapt-or-die” concept, pushing them forward to rapid digitalization and compliance with the data privacy and security regulations. What are other changes in the data security vs. privacy sector in the years to come? Here’s a roundup of the most expected trends in the data privacy sector shortly.

Broadening the Data Protection Roles 

Continuous escalation of pressures of data privacy laws will eventually lead to the need to enlarge the number of people working on compliance. A single person in a data protection officer or any other role will be incapable of managing, supervising, and implementing data protection regulations manually without a team or at least one assistant.

A rapid increase in demand for data security, privacy, and compliance will escalate the opportunities for people who stand behind compliance. Chief Data Officers, Data Protection Officers, Chief Information Security Officers will be encouraged to join their efforts in mutual attempts to strengthen their DPMS.

Data-protection-as-a-Service

Data security companies are developing data protection as a service model to increase customer focus and meet their needs. The Data Protection-as-a-Service market is expected to grow $18.96 bn by 2026, since more and more businesses will seek to improve their hosted services and make them even more scalable, flexible with enhanced management and recovery options.

Adoption of Multi-standard Compliance Tools for Data Privacy Management

Privacy vs. security has already slowly started to merge and share common interests and responsibilities. To ensure proper DPMS, companies need to align it with their ISMS and comply with other crucial standards and regulations. Thus incorporating information security and data privacy strategies into one will become one of the major trends in the years ahead.
Meanwhile, the escalation of national data privacy laws and the increasing regulatory pressures will lead to the need to balance the workload of data privacy protection officers and dramatically reduce manual work.
Companies will be striving to introduce a single tool-driven platform to manage multiple standards and systems in one.

GDPR Strengthening Its Influence Across the Globe

EU-based privacy pros place even more emphasis on GDPR compliance, with more than 60% saying it is their number one job, compared to just 16% in the U.S.
In 2021, the number of companies that achieved GDPR compliance increased by 7% compared to 2020, the IAPP recent study states. 47% of respondents claimed to be wholly or very compliant with GDPR. Therefore, organizations are expected to use GDPR to gain greater adoption in 2022-2025 due to its jurisdictional neutrality. Strict penalties for non-compliance push companies to continuously improve their cyber policies aimed at information security and data protection.

Schrems II Continues to Be a Concern

One of the most significant changes in data protection and privacy in 2020 will continue to be a headache for companies transferring personal data from Europe to the U.S. within the next few years, as they will have to deal with the consequences of Schrems II. Since the EU admitted the personal data export method – the Privacy Shield – to be no longer lawful, businesses must immediately switch to another data transfer mechanism. Using Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) under Article 46 of the GDPR will not be sufficient; companies will have to support it with additional safeguards to protect personal data.

What are the challenges faced in data protection management?

The Rise of National Data Privacy Regulations

The data privacy regulatory environment is becoming more rigorous. New privacy laws are emerging and coming into action: CCPA 2.0 of 2021 and CDPA in the United States taking effect in 2023, China’s attempts to increase demand for data management in China, and India trying to introduce personal data protection bill. More and more countries are striving for national data policies.

• A data privacy law CDPA (Consumer Data Protection Act) will take effect in 2023. According to it, organizations running a business in Virginia must broaden the user’s rights regarding personal data, get permission for data processing and allow residents to opt-out if they will sell the data for financial gain.
• China’s Personal Information Protection Law (2020) was the first attempt to establish data privacy regulations in the country and was expected to take effect in 2021, yet it is put on hold. The PIPL will increase the rights of data subjects, expand the legal bases for data processing beyond consent, etc.
• In late 2020, Brazilian authorities initiated enforcement of the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), aiming to protect the personal information of 140 million internet users in Latin America. The law lists ten principles for personal data processing and applies to both public and private sectors, online and offline organizations.
• Canadian organizations are foreseen to undergo more strict privacy regulations in the years ahead due to the release of a draft reform bill, the Consumer Privacy Protection Act. It is supposed to replace the 20-year-old Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

Taking up a People-Centric Approach in Data Management

To quickly respond to data subject request (DSR), data protection officers must achieve a transparent level of data traceability. When responding to DSR, they can quickly identify where a personal record or data element is located in the system moment.
Organizations strive to build a people-centered view of data by undertaking a people-centric approach that places personal data at the center of all compliance processes.
It dramatically simplifies the fulfillment of data subject access requests, data mapping, and data retention policy management and tying consent back to users.
The PCA approach is expected to become a trend in the years to come and use artificial intelligence for significant data mapping activities.