The past 12 months witnessed the emergence of new comprehensive privacy laws in Virginia and Colorado, showing the continued appetite for consumer privacy protections in the United States. China passed a new privacy law, impacting multinational companies.

Over the past 12 months, we witnessed two new comprehensive privacy laws in Virginia and Colorado, demonstrating the continued appetite for consumer privacy protections in the United States. Additionally, companies saw continued privacy enforcement by U.S. agencies, an increase in privacy litigation, and a surge of data security threats. On the international front, China passed a new comprehensive privacy law which will have a substantial impact on multinational companies.

To help companies understand and address these privacy changes, Winston’s Global Privacy Team put together a “Year in Review” highlighting ten significant privacy developments in 2021:

  1. California Privacy Law Updates – CPRA and CCPA
  2. Virginia and Colorado New Privacy Laws
  3. Telephone Consumer Protection Act Developments
  4. Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act Developments
  5. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Narrowed
  6. NIST and Internet of Things Regulation
  7. Cybersecurity and Log4j Apache Vulnerability
  8. U.S. Treasury Guidance on Ransomware
  9. Cross-Border Data Transfers and Standard Contractual Clauses
  10. China’s New Personal Information Protection Law

Further explanation of these privacy changes, as well as our list of privacy developments to watch in 2022, are included in the full review. 

Read the full Review here.