As technology advances and companies like yours seek new ways to be innovative, there are growing concerns and efforts to protect data privacy and consumer rights. Just in July 20224, the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) brought legislative attention to the growing need for consumer protections. It hasn’t passed as a bill. But it has companies reassessing their efforts to handle and use consumer data. If you’re like most business leaders, you have questions about data privacy and consumer rights. Today, we’re highlighting some of

the most common inquiries and providing the clarity you need to make informed decisions about how you handle data in 2025.

1. Which aspects of the APRA bill should matter to my company?

Some of the key elements within the APRA bill (again, not yet passed) include the following provisions. These factors can help your company prioritize your efforts to lay in necessary consumer protections as they make sense for your business model.

· Opt-out rights: Consider giving your consumers options to opt-out of data collection.

· Data minimization: Consider allowing consumers to decide which of their personal information details to share.

· Consumer control: Consider incorporating provisions that give consumers greater control of permissions for various aspects of data collection and use.

· Legal recourse: Consider improving paths for legal recourse for your consumers to commit to an ethical handling of their information.

· Transparency: Consider issuing new statements or communication channels to ensure every consumer knows what you’re doing with their data.

2. What can my company do to improve data protection?

As Zendesk outlines, there are a number of ways your company can look to better limit data access and improve how you store records. These tips include:

· Know your compliance obligations

· Train your teams to understand your policies

· Define what consumer data you keep

· Embrace encryption whenever possible

· Update your data management software

· Perform regular data collection process audits

3. What type of data should my company be encrypting?

According to the FTC, encryption can protect consumer data and privacy across a host of different aspects of your business. For example, you’ll want to encrypt anything you exchange with others over the internet, including emails, vendor quotes, forms, customer lists, and communications. The best way to facilitate adequate encryption involves robust company networks, storage software, and device management.

4. What’s the biggest concern with data privacy in today’s businesses?

While there are data privacy risks across all segments of your business, one of the most important risks to mitigate involves who has access to the data you collect. As a company leader, you’ll want strict guidelines and ethics policies to support controlling access to the data you collect. Authorizations and layers of controls will help to keep your consumer data secure. An ethics hotline can be especially helpful as an additional method of oversight, allowing staff to report anonymously any breaches or suspected breaches.

Ethical Advocate Can Help

If you suspect you have potential risks in your company, related to consumer protections and privacy, let our team at Ethical Advocate help. We can guide your company efforts in crafting ethics policies and procedures to support consumer-forward protections. And we’ll assist in setting up an ethics hotline as an added layer of data-management oversight to ensure you avoid costly mistakes in 2025.