Here is what 2018 brought:
- The EU codified “the right to be forgotten” and consumer’s rights over their data through a law known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- Though the U.S. has not addressed this issue at the federal level, many states are attempting to craft laws giving tech and social media users greater rights to data privacy.
- In 2018, IHRSA saw California introduce sweeping legislation regarding how long businesses can store data and what permissions are necessary.
- Colorado passed a law this summer mandating businesses that keep Coloradans’ data need a written data management policy and must alert consumers within 30 days of a breach.
Expect this trend to gain steam in 2019, as data privacy is on the minds of legislators in state houses across the country. This sea change in how we treat and view personal data—giving control to the individual—could have long-lasting ramifications for how business is conducted in the digital age and could create new markets altogether. Companies are already pushing forward on the value of personal data and how to make it work for them.
For instance, John Hancock Life Insurance company recently announced that it would stop selling traditional policies, and instead only sell “interactive policies” that track fitness and health data through wearables and smartphones.
Now imagine if there were a digital marketplace where you could choose to sell your data to companies, what would that look like? One of the top issues IHRSA will be watching in 2019 is the evolving value and importance of information, and you should be watching it, too!