How online privacy affects businesses

How does online privacy affect businesses in 2019? We hear stories in the news almost every day now about a new data breach, a new privacy concern concerning one of the large tech giants, a new law, or a potential presidential candidate in the U.S. taking a stand for consumer rights.

The tech news has made it clear that the general population needs to take online privacy seriously, but we don’t see a lot of stories about how online privacy will affect businesses. We need to take a closer look at how the topic of online privacy will affect businesses in 2019 and going forward.

Online privacy will not affect businesses in the same way that it will affect their customers. People are told to be careful about what information they put online so businesses can’t use that information against them in nefarious ways. The super-paranoid has gone so as to warn people against wearables like the Apple Watch or Fitbits because insurance companies could potentially get a hold of that information and use it to charge people higher rates.

We may never actually get to a dystopian world like that, their arguments shouldn’t be taken lightly. The drumbeat of this movement has already started to force lawmakers to take notice of the growing concerns of online privacy. In fact, in some places like the EU, laws have already been established that have a serious impact on businesses like GDPR.

Businesses Need To Be Aware Of GDPR

GDPR is a law that requires businesses to announce data breaches as soon as they happen. It goes further by limiting what information businesses could potentially collect, explain what information they do collect, how that information is collected, how it’s used, and requires a way for a person to request that their information is deleted from businesses’ records.

This means companies need to take the time to design new privacy and data policies. They need to ensure that their policies are following the laws of the land, and that their employees are not mis-using this data. It also means that businesses will need to invest in new systems that can securely and thoroughly delete personal information upon request.

That’s going to make life difficult for companies like Google and Facebook where their entire business model is built around collecting data. Though that may be the easiest example to point to, GDPR doesn’t stop there. If a business buys marketing data from an agency, they have to be careful about how that information is stored and used. That business also has to clearly explain in its policies what data it has and where it was purchased. A business could easily find itself in hot water if the marketing research firm it purchased its data from is violating GDPR.

GDPR Affects Everyone

GDPR doesn’t only affect companies in the EU either. Any businesses with a potential presence in the EU have to adhere to this law. That means blogs, podcasts, digital product companies, etc… all have to abide by GDPR. That doubles the cost of doing business because that business has to pay attention to complicated laws in a place where their target user base isn’t even located. Companies have a choice to adhere to those laws or get out of the country. For an online business, that could potentially mean blocking the entirety of the EU from even visiting its website.

GDPR isn’t going to be the only law that businesses have to worry about either. The US is proposing similar laws. That’s going to make running an online business even harder as businesses will have to navigate a tough minefield of legislation in multiple countries. That’s going to take man hours, more lawyers, and better policies just to make sure a business doesn’t accidentally, and without malicious intent, break a law which could impose business-ending fines.

So how are businesses attacking laws like GDPR? Some are finding themselves having to make tough choices. For example, more localized newspapers are having to block access from any visitor that might be coming from the EU. A localized newspaper isn’t going to be affected as heavily since its target market is, well, localized. Not all businesses have that opportunity, though. A business like Freshdesk, a start-up company that offers helpdesk software, needs to be able to offer its product globally.

Customers Will Find A Way

Blocking potential customers living in certain parts of the world hasn’t always been known to work either. Both businesses and consumers alike use VPN services to bypass region restrictions. Of course, VPNs have a lot of other uses as well. VPNs are largely used to protect business officials and consumers alike by allowing secure endpoint connections from their device to another server located in a safe area. Netflix customers have been using VPN services to access content not available in their country. Business owners have been using VPNs to protect their information while visiting countries like China or Russia.

VPNs already play a big part in online privacy protection for travelers, whether they be a business owner or tourist, but they are start going to play a bigger part in how we surf the internet and do business going forward in a large part to online privacy laws. This means that businesses may have to pay attention to traffic coming from a known VPN. Though, laws like GDPR don’t necessarily make it clear whether a business would still be held liable if they did take the effort to block traffic from the EU but is still receiving EU traffic through a VPN.

The Future Doesn’t Have To Be Bleak

Other businesses have decided to take a more relaxed approach to online privacy laws and let large businesses, like Google, fight it out. In fact, Google has already launched a lawsuit against the EU and contested recently imposed fines.  The outcome of trials such as these will better guide businesses in the future regarding online privacy.

Online privacy will affect businesses in 2019. There’s no doubt about that, and It might seem bleak. Online privacy is still in its infancy, though, and we have a lot to figure out on a global scale. It’s best that we start having these discussions about online privacy now so that we can help shape how it looks in the future.