Will Data Enforcement Begin to Protect User Privacy?

Contributor, February 25, 2021

In this era of data awareness, the user is met with repeated requests for consent.  There is no consistency in the data laws between different countries, and the way in which consent and user rights are presented. Only one thing seems to unify all these different laws is enforcement which aims to protect users’ rights and the data exchange. However, how that data enforcement is carried out is still in the early stages across the globe.   

Since GDPR’s launch in 2018, there have been over 281,000 GDPR breach notifications in the EU. Germany and the Netherlands have had more notifications than other member states, while the largest fines have been handed out in France and Italy. The highest total number of fines have been in Italy, with the country enforcing a current total of over 57.2 million euro in GDPR related fines. 

During the first few years of enforcement we have seen high penalties given to some of the largest companies of Adtech. 

 

 

However, it remains to be seen how the power and effectiveness of these new data awareness requirements will be upheld and users’ data protected. The high penalties that crowd the headlines only account for a small percentage of the income of those companies.