Skipping through 2023 Data Privacy Week Like …

This Data Privacy Week, I want to celebrate the privacy profession and the practitioners 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 We’ve come a long way folks, and we’re still skipping along!!!!!!

So as the world continues to find its new normal against the backdrop of a very uncertain economy, 2023 is shaping up to be a very active year.

Here are the 10 big topics I see on the horizon for the data privacy profession for 2023:

1. New data privacy legislation (I’ve got my eyes on developments in the US, the Caribbean, and Africa)

2. Increased consumer use of emerging technologies (I predict “AI” is gonna be the buzzword of the year)

3. Big Tech’s fight for web browsers’ eyeballs on digital advertising (some innovative privacy enhancing solutions appearing in this space).

4. Remodelling cumbersome cookie consents (to offer “reject all” or not to offer “reject all” is not the only question.

5. Data breaches (there’s always gonna be data breaches, especially as this cyber war rages on).

6. Increased calls for data localisation (the battle for data sovereignty is proving data really is the new oil).

7. Emergence of digital regulations in EU, UK, and US (I love the advances we’ve made and the more holistic approach to digital regulation by bringing together data privacy, digital ethics, consumer rights, and market competition/antitrust).

8. Increased mentoring for data privacy professionals (let’s pay it forward - I use my “DPO Dr. Clinic” to mentor new practitioners who are starting to realize this whole DP thing is a lot harder than it looks).

9. NOYB (I await the next challenge with bated breath and a strong hint of admiration for pushing the privacy envelope).

10. GDPR fines (yep, they’re gonna come, but they will be a lot lower than the eye-watering predictions 5 years ago, so let’s not use fear tactics as a motivator for boards and clients).

Final Thoughts

Privacy is definitely an ever-evolving profession filled with ample opportunities to learn and contribute to society.