In 2026, states and regulators will likely focus on many of the same areas they examined previously, including kids’ privacy and AI, said Cobun Zweifel-Keegan, managing director of IAPP, Washington, D.C., in an interview with Privacy Daily. On the federal level, a flood of privacy legislation is expected by year-end, he added.
AI Privacy
AI privacy concerns are growing as copyrighted works and personal data are used to train, optimize and operate machine learning systems. From facial recognition to inference risks, AI applications often test the limits of existing privacy laws. Regulators worldwide are developing safeguards to govern data use, bias, transparency and consent in AI development. This page tracks legislation, regulatory frameworks and enforcement actions at the intersection of AI and data protection.
The change to the definition of "personal data" in the GDPR is one of the most significant proposals in the European Commission's new digital omnibus, privacy attorneys and advocates said. It's unclear so far whether the reform represents a pragmatic or messy approach to data protection, they added.
Several Senate Republicans and Democrats told us in interviews last week their stances on federal AI policy haven’t changed since the chamber voted 99-1 to block a proposed AI moratorium (see 2511200051).
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) joined state lawmakers in opposition to a draft executive order seeking to block state AI regulations (see 2511200051).
Growing enforcement and the AI explosion are driving steady growth in the global privacy compliance market, said IDC analyst Ryan O’Leary in an interview this week with Privacy Daily. IDC’s 2025 MarketScape report on worldwide data privacy compliance vendors found that the market grew 18% year over year, hitting $1.5 billion in revenue in 2025.
A service for making AI-generated apps said it’s embracing privacy by design by integrating an AI-powered code scanner.
BRUSSELS -- Geopolitical issues are affecting privacy and digital regulation this year, speakers said Wednesday at the IAPP Data Protection Europe Congress. Polarization is influencing the policies that affect privacy practitioners' work, said Hogan Lovells data protection attorney Eduardo Ustaran.
Discussion about a draft executive order seeking to block states from regulating AI is “speculation” until something is announced, a White House official said in a statement Thursday (see 2511190059). However, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CalPrivacy) and others condemned the possible preemption attempt.
BigID added data mapping using agentic AI to its privacy compliance software, the vendor said Wednesday. The feature automates and visualizes personal data flows, it added. “BigID uses agentic AI to interpret Record of Processing Activities (RoPA) details and dynamically map data collection, use, transformation, and transfers -- surfacing risky or unintended flows to help mitigate the risk of compliance issues or audit failures.”
A Pennsylvania bill on AI chatbots cleared the state’s Senate Technology Committee on Tuesday. The committee voted 11-0 to report SB-1090 to the floor.