We can’t say 2021 was great for privacy as there are many more issues to be solved. Still, there were some cool things taking place like Apple’s decision to roll out the update that allows users to opt-out of app tracking. By the end of the year, most iPhone users did this, prompting Facebook to announce they expect a hit on their ad revenue — which is directly related to tracking of the users.
On the legislative front, South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) came into effect in July, and Gartner even predicted that similar laws will cover 75% of the world’s population by the end of 2023.
On the other hand, the number of data breaches continued to go up, impacting hundreds of millions of people and illustrating that online privacy and security will remain an ongoing battle for organizations of all sizes.
And that’s what this article is all about – as we’ll try to predict online privacy and security trends for 2022 and beyond. Let’s get going, shall we?
Privacy will be (even more) mainstream
In one way or another, the Big Tech is embracing privacy. We’ve already mentioned what Apple did last year and this year, Google will be rolling out something similar in Chrome to prevent third-party cookies. That’s a big win for the user’s privacy, though the search giant will still be able to track us down by putting us into different “categories.” This will, however, have an impact on many smaller players and on Facebook, which will have a harder time tracking us outside of its own website.
Beyond the tech firms, governments from all over the world are getting ready to introduce their own privacy protection laws.
Increased demand for transparency
Privacy alone is not enough — there is also transparency, with users increasingly demanding to know what’s going on with their data once they leave it on a website or in an app. That part is also regulated by laws such as the EU’s GDPR and we expect this trend to continue in 2022 and beyond.
I guess we can’t stop companies from selling their users’ data, but we should be able to know about it upfront. This layer of transparency could easily make or break many deals on the Internet, while at the same time making for a better overall environment for the end users.
More responsibility
All the privacy demands from end users will put more pressure on organizations offering various products and services on the Internet. They will then have to hire more people taking (good) care of the user data, while complying with local laws across the markets they do business in.
At the same time, organizations will be forced to set up company-wide data governance frameworks to ensure that all the data collected from customers is treated in the proper manner.
Also, organizations will have to ensure that their IT solution providers follow the same guidelines, policies, and compliance procedures when it comes to data privacy.
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Overall, we expect 2022 to be an even better year for privacy though not without its own set of challenges. With that in mind, we invite you to drop us your two cents about the possible trends in privacy & security that you expect to see this year. The comments form is all yours.