Why 2018 Has Been a Landmark Data Privacy Year

Research reveals how Americans feel about digital activity monitoring in the workplace and steps public and private sector organizations can take to gain the support of employees and to avoid violating their privacy. If you ask the folks at security software maker Dtex, May, June and July 2018 may go down as three of the most significant months in the history of data privacy. Case in point: GDPR entered enforcement mode on May 25. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Fourth Amendment requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant before searching individuals’ cellphone location data. California passed a landmark privacy law. Verizon and AT&T pledged to stop selling mobile customer location data to third-party data brokers. The data-privacy debate impacts consumers and employees. One side calls for absolute regard for privacy; another set of voices says that “consent” gives companies carte blanche to do what they please with data their users “voluntarily” provide. There is a group asserting that we should all be open to a middle-ground solution.