The bedrock of privacy: Data Privacy Laws

Around on December 1 2021, Russia began blocking Tor, a privacy service used to prevent tracking and surveillance and to bypass censorship. Tor, which stands for “The Onion Router”, is a multilayer encryption privacy service used globally to maintain a high level of anonymity. In addition to bypassing censorship, this service can protect a data subject’s identity online by preventing collection of personal data. Russia’s censorship body has previously blocked access to many virtual private networks (VPNs) that had operated in the country.

China has also recently banned VPNs, preventing resident’s anonymity while browsing online. VPNs in China are now considered a crime by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

These countries, instead of targeting authorities working for multinational companies, are focusing on organizations providing these services. In the setting of an ever evolving world-wide privacy rights,  what do proponents of privacy still have going for them?

Data privacy laws.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are still going strong. The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act and the Colorado Privacy Act are on the way.

Luckily as some privacy protective tools are receding, others are sticking around.  Whereas, Tor and VPNs are intended to prevent the collection of personal data at the outset, the GDPR, CCPA, and other data privacy laws allow users to take steps to limit the amount of personal data that is collected about them and to have what data is collected about them deleted.

Clarip assists businesses in complying with these laws.  We provide consent management, so that users can indicate what information they are willing to share with businesses whose websites they visit.  We also provide automated data rights request solutions, meaning that if a consumer requests a business delete their personal information, our automated DSAR fulfillment solution can receive the request, verify the requestor’s identity, and delete the requested data—all same-day.  To learn more about these capabilities and other data privacy services we provide, visit us at www.clarip.com or call us at 1-888-252-5653.