America is Going Privacy-First. But Do We Really Care?

We’ve come a long way in digital privacy. Five states (CA, CO, CT, UT, and VA) have passed consumer privacy laws in the last two years and a federal bill is in the works.

More than anything, though, becoming a more secure Internet user is far easier than ever.

• You once used a tool like Blur to mask your email or credit card information. Now iPhones do this for you whenever you check out or need to input your email.
• VPNs used to be very complex to implement properly. Now we have one-click VPNs.
• Brave made a secure, privacy-first browser that is actually easy for the average person to use.

The simple act of changing to the Brave Browser has netted me a lot of benefits over the last three years, as seen below:

Opportunities in the Privacy-First America

We’re in the midst of changing the fundamental ways we operate digitally. Online commerce is being forced to change to fit this new privacy-first era. With this, there are many opportunities.

Providing businesses with tools for first-party data capture. Third-party trackers are out and businesses have to get savvy with capturing first-party data. This is quickly becoming a saturated market. FullThrottle.ai, Tealium, Zeotap, and Acquia are just a few. However, I haven’t seen anyone marketing on the lower end of this market, specifically mom-and-pop restaurants, dentist offices, law firms, etc.

Privacy consulting. Navigating these new laws will be very difficult and there’s ample opportunity to help businesses implement privacy best practices. Both Drata and Dataships are ahead of the game, helping businesses ensure they’re GDPR compliant.

Privacy-first software and browser plug-ins. Tools like Brave are only going to get bigger and more important. And there’s really no shortage of solutions here.

For example, now that most sites prompt you to accept cookie preferences, it’s no surprise that a plug-in called I don’t care about cookies already has 1m+ downloads. And all it does is automatically accept the cookie permissions, eliminating that annoying popup. Honestly, there could be more functionality in that plug-in, like clearing cookies after use and the ability to dictate certain cookie permissions you’re okay with.

Overall, the government feels responsible for protecting us from nefarious online actors and so they’re passing these privacy laws. Businesses are fearful of being at the center of a major data breach. But I still feel we have a long way to go in getting users to care about privacy. That’s why simple privacy education is still the largest opportunity in this market, in my opinion.