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In the wake of extraordinary changes in 2021, data privacy experts and cybersecurity professionals offer their takes on how the privacy landscape will progress in 2022.
As 2021 reaches its end, we are seeing an increase in pro-privacy arguments among consumers and lawmakers. Data brokers are finding it difficult to accept the new realities, while privacy advocates are looking forward to changes in data protection regulations.
Stricter regulations from lawmakers are resulting in many businesses and organizations making their applications, products, services, etc., more privacy-friendly, and the privacy protection market is expected to rise even higher. How will these changes and trends impact consumers and organizations in 2022 and beyond?
We talked to data privacy experts and cybersecurity professionals about what privacy trends we can expect in 2022. Here’s what we learned.
With the Privacy Product Market on the Rise, How Will Privacy Products Evolve in 2022?
Joe Cannata, owner of Techsperts, LLC notes that the remote work model has created some issues that could equate to privacy concerns.
”The shift to the work-from-home model has created new issues for team managers. How do you accurately track productivity for employees outside the office? The answer for some businesses has been employee monitoring software. This is software that monitors the daily productivity of employees through agents usually installed on the workstations. Items such as idle time, websites visited, emails sent and many other parameters are monitored”, says Cannata. ”This does create some privacy concerns, as you can imagine, cautions Cannata. ”The trouble is finding the balance between ensuring your employees are fulfilling their primary duties and breaching their privacy through invasive methods far beyond what the norm was pre-pandemic.”
What Major Privacy Concerns Should Users Be On the Lookout for in the Next Year?
One of the most essential tools consumers have for their protection to protect their privacy is the ability to check what they are using and how it will be used. Consumers should check the terms and conditions of the service to determine if using that service is necessary. Is it worth using the service knowing that your privacy will be potentially in jeopardy?
More and more consumers are trusting vendors and partners to secure their information without taking steps to find out if there should be any reason not to trust them. ”The single most important message to get across to people is that trusting your vendors and partners to be secure is dangerous”, cautions Shelah.
Think about the number of times you have been in a store and they said “Oh, the chip reader is not working, just swipe it” or the last time you visited the doctor’s office, sat in the waiting room by (yourself) for 15 minutes or more and the computer in the corner never timed out and locked itself. While retail has PCI has a governing compliance framework and medical has HIPAA, these are all “self-reporting”, which means none of these companies get in trouble until a breach occurs.
-Mike Shelah
Shelah continues, ”That is why government entities like the DoD are now MANDATING compliance frameworks like CMMC. It is widely believed that, once adopted, CMMC will show up in other government entities and that the commercial business world will begin to see similar “requirements” in order to do business.”
”What this means for the end-user is, you must be proactive with your personal data. Don’t just give someone your social security number. Ask them why they need it. Ask if the task can be done another way (here’s a hint, the doctor’s office does NOT need your social security number). The time has come for individuals to demand that the commercial and retail business world do better,” said Shelah.
How Will Data-Driven Industries React to These Trends?
Not all data collectors will present a greater sense of transparency. In fact, we anticipate that many data-driven industries will attempt to adopt new technologies that will help them collect the information they want but in a less apparent way. Some data-driven industries will likely create coalitions for data sharing.
Putting your head down or digging your heels in the dirt as it relates to privacy changes of this magnitude is not an option. Industry distress and legal pushback could seriously delay the implementation of certain privacy policy shifts, but this will only delay the inevitable.
The time is near. Greater privacy controls are on the way, and the businesses and organizations that will have success in the future will be the ones that accept and do their part to help accelerate this massive transition. Many businesses and organizations are striving to construct a consumer-centered view of data by undertaking a consumer-centric approach that places sensitive and personal data at the center of all compliance processes. Businesses and organizations will need to be clear and thorough about their policies and the use of data in their organization.
What Can We Expect in 2022 and Beyond?
Operating in today’s environment isn’t for the faint of heart, and that’s never been truer than it was in 2020 and 2021. The landscape is undergoing never-seen-before transitions as the world makes a shift to a privacy-first reality, and many business models, practices, and technologies are not going to survive.
From the perspective of data processors, the data privacy environment is getting tougher every year, with penalties becoming more frequent. The pandemic has challenged businesses and organizations globally with the Adapt-or-Die model, pushing them toward digitalization and compliance with the data privacy and security regulations.
”If you own a business (or are a business leader), start following a compliance framework. The best universal track is called NIST 800-171. Start requiring your vendors and business partners to do the same”, said Mike Shelah of Advantage Industries.
What are other changes to privacy that will occur in 2022? We believe that there will be clearer policies defining data control and data access. Businesses and organizations will need to develop policies that will govern who can access data, the type of data that can be accessed, how the data can be accessed, and when the data can be accessed.
More consumers are looking for greater transparency, and manufacturers and operators will have to accept that and act on it. We anticipate that more manufacturers and operators will provide a greater amount of transparency in 2022. What are your thoughts?
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