Modern digital businesses have a wide set of regulatory demands placed on them, regardless of the industry they operate in. No business is too big to be hit with fines, as the July $887 million Amazon fine clearly showed. The business of compliance can seem arcane and small businesses will have a particularly hard time navigating. The good news is that there are options out there and, more often than not, making a sincere effort to comply will demonstrate the duty of care required by the regulators.
The legislation governing American data protection has a reputation of being complex and difficult to understand. Given the broad range of powers in place, this is understandable. However, legal experts Lexology have observed a gradual unification of US data compliance powers. What this means is now, more than ever, businesses can benefit from a one-size-fits-all approach. Compliance industry experts MirrorWeb note that unified compliance platforms have helped US businesses to combine their needs both domestically and internationally (i.e. with regard to GDPR).
The best compliance measures can be undone by determined enough parties. This was shown by the recent hack of Twitch, in which the entire platform and its source code was leaked by hackers - financial information included. Businesses must invest in complete cybersecurity and maintain assurance over their assets. This will prevent businesses from being breached in a catastrophic way and also help to tick boxes for regulators, who are increasingly cybersecurity savvy in their approach. This is a predictable move, given the increasing importance of remaining resilient in the face of escalating cyberattacks from across the world.
It's clear that data protection is becoming more unified, and compliance is easier to complete than before. There will be change on the horizon, however, according to Thomson Reuters. Key in their trend analysis is an internationalist approach to compliance; they recommend that businesses look around the world and take on board compliance changes in other countries, as it may be they soon land on American shores.
A concerted effort is required to meet regulatory demands when it comes to web compliance. More is being done to help businesses approach this in a fashion that makes sense for ease of operation, but it's worth doing research on the side, too. The experts can lead the way, but make informed choices.
