According to the Kaspersky experts, there will be big changes in the area of data protection in 2021 - from a consumer, corporate and government perspective. Manufacturers and services will collect more and more different data, while governments will react with ever new regulations. In addition, users will increasingly see data protection as an added value for which they are willing to pay.
With the corona pandemic, 2020 has shown how important a networked infrastructure and digital services have become for everyday life. The projections were based on the shifts and trends observed by the data protection experts at Kaspersky in 2020. According to the researchers, the differences between the various stakeholders in the discussion about data protection and data collection are a result of the following developments:
Top 5 data protection predictions for 2021
1. Companies respond to consumer requests for more data protection
The increase in data collection during the pandemic and increasing political turmoil, including on digital platforms, have increased public awareness of unrestricted data collection. As more and more users want to protect their privacy, companies are reacting with new data protection-oriented products, the number and variety of which will increase in the future.
2. Manufacturers of smart health trackers collect more different types of data and use them for various purposes
The data collected by fitness trackers, blood pressure monitors and other devices offer valuable insights and are, for example, already used in legal proceedings in some countries - health insurance companies are also showing great interest in this data. Since health is a public concern, the demand for such data will continue to grow.
3. More regulation by governments around the world making data protection more difficult
Access to user data opens up a multitude of possibilities - for example in the fight against child abuse, the efficient design of city traffic or the suppression of dissenting opinions. However, since most private companies refuse to share this data - for example in the form of privacy-friendly technologies such as end-to-end encryption, DNS-over-HTTPS and cryptocurrencies - governments around the world will introduce more regulations that make data protection on the Internet more difficult.
4. New data sources for behavior analysis
Data-driven behavioral analytics are dangerous; Errors can directly harm people, while the actual quality of these systems often remains a trade secret. But that won't stop companies working in this field from finding ever more creative ways to profile users based on personal preferences and occupations and thereby influence their lives.
5. Enforcement of multiparty computations
(Multi-Party-Computations), differentiated data protection, federal learning and edge computing: As companies increasingly recognize what data they actually need and consumers defend themselves against uncontrolled data collection, more advanced data protection tools are emerging that are increasingly used while big tech - Companies try to meet the new and strict data protection standards of users. More advanced hardware will emerge that developers can use to create tools that enable more advanced computing. This will reduce the amount of data users share with organizations.
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