Data leaders and stakeholders in data-driven organizations are already well aware of the stakes inherent in data compliance. But as the present reality within data environments becomes more challenging to deal with, it can be hard to keep an eye on what's just over the horizon.
That said, global and US state-level privacy laws are set to expand. As just one example, fines for non-compliance under the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) may reach up to 4% of a company's global revenue. This will mirror the stringent penalties under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), signaling that non-compliance will carry increasingly heavy financial consequences.
With all the potential fines and reputation damage at play, the stakes that data leaders face would be intimidating in any casino. Therefore, access to information about tomorrow's key compliance, security, and privacy concerns is crucial to ensuring that no one in their org is rolling the dice regarding data compliance.
And this information ideally consists of more than understanding what’s in store regarding data compliance. Through some analysis, data leaders can begin to strategize what to do moving forward.
Awareness: Key data compliance trends for 2025
As big data continues to make the business world smaller, data leaders face trends of increasing global proportions.
That said, we now face an inflection point where access to the scale and complexity business owners need to keep their organizations competitive is less of an issue. The quality and ethical implications of data use, however, have never been more important.
1. Stricter data privacy laws for greater global standardization
As 2025 peeks out at us from just over the horizon, so too do more stringent data privacy laws. These laws are spurring a move toward global standardization.
New regulations, such as the APRA in the US, will introduce federal standards that align with the European Union’s GDPR (which went into effect back in 2018). Once in effect, these new regulations will require companies to adapt their data compliance programs across regions.
The ensuing shift will simplify some aspects of compliance for businesses but will increase accountability across third-party vendors and data processors as a result.
Organizations must build security safeguards and transparent data practices into their compliance frameworks (i.e., fully embracing data governance as code) to remain fully compliant with these increasingly global privacy regulations.
2. Broader data sovereignty and localization mandates
Additionally, nations around the world are pushing for stronger data sovereignty through localization laws that mandate the storage and processing of personal information within specific geographic boundaries.
For organizations operating globally, this trend requires revisiting data storage and access strategies to ensure compliance with local laws while avoiding significant penalties.
Moreover, as more regions embrace these localization mandates, data leaders must prioritize regulatory compliance within their organizations. By doing so, they actively safeguard sensitive and proprietary data, keeping it securely stored and managed as part of their data management frameworks according to each jurisdiction's standards.
3. Increasing demands for more ethical and compliant AI data governance
As AI systems increasingly rely on vast amounts of personal data, rapid integration of AI into business operations is driving the creation of new and unique compliance requirements.
Regulators, in turn, are focusing more intently on AI governance to ensure data is handled ethically, securely, and in accordance with evolving privacy laws.
The resulting shift will compel data leaders to robustify existing frameworks they use to oversee AI-driven data practices—ensuring compliance with both local and international data protection regulations. Failing to do so will be unacceptable, if it isn’t already, as it will jeopardize the ethical development and deployment of AI technologies.
4. Deeper integrations of data privacy and security in compliance foundations
As cybersecurity threats grow more sophisticated, data security and functionality like automated data governance are gaining precedence among the other facets responsible for robust data compliance, like data lifecycle management and risk management.
To adapt, organizations must adopt proactive measures like real-time monitoring, access control, and encryption to safeguard sensitive information from vulnerabilities and unauthorized access, both from data consumers and external bad actors.
In addition to regulatory requirements, post-pandemic consumer expectations are driving this trend, as consumers demand greater transparency in data handling, and rightly so.
Increasingly essential components of a strong data compliance program include the following:
- Security standards and access control: By implementing standards like SOX, PCI DSS, and NIST, data leaders provide individuals with only the customer data they are authorized to use, such as credit card information and other personally identifiable information in relevant industries.
- Risk management and assessment: Leaders should also implement a consistent cadence of risk assessments and data audits to pinpoint compliance vulnerabilities and mitigate cyber threats effectively. Proactivity is key here, as data teams who actively keep data aligned with data compliance regulations can also foster more robust information security management programs.
- Data deletion and data storage protocols: In addition to secure storage, data deletion policies play a critical role in protecting customer privacy. Sometimes overlooked in older, more-is-better approaches to data management, data leaders who champion these policies improve organizational adherence to privacy regulations, making certain their teams securely erase outdated or irrelevant data in compliance with regulatory requirements.
By embedding these data security practices into a comprehensive compliance program, organizations can reduce the risks associated with data breaches and non-compliance and position themselves as trustworthy custodians of sensitive information.
5. Better safeguards for health information through tighter healthcare compliance standards
Experts predict the emergent direct-to-consumer healthcare industry will gain traction in 2025 as patients increasingly seek expanded access to drugs and medical devices without going through traditional healthcare providers.
Healthcare compliance demands a heightened focus on privacy and security, especially in light of regulations like HIPAA, which governs the handling of health information in the US.
Healthcare providers and service organizations are required to meet strict standards in data collection, storage, and access to protect patient information from data breaches and unauthorized use.
Key factors that influence healthcare compliance in 2025 will include:
- Privacy regulations and data protection laws: HIPAA, along with emerging health-focused privacy laws, ensures that healthcare organizations prioritize the security of health information and patient privacy.
- Data collection, access, and storage: As the healthcare industry continues to digitize patient data, healthcare providers must adhere to data compliance regulations governing the storage, access, and management of health data. Effective access control, data safeguards, and consistent data audits are essential to protect patient data from vulnerabilities and ensure compliance.
- Industry-specific compliance: Healthcare providers must stay agile and responsive to changing standards around patient data privacy and secure information handling. This requires balancing data access needs with compliance obligations. As compliance frameworks evolve, organizations should conduct regular assessments to continuously meet new regulations and maintain patient trust.
The healthcare industry’s unique requirements for data privacy and protection underscore the importance of compliance programs that address sector-specific regulations.
However, by embedding robust data safeguards and adopting healthcare-compliant data storage and access controls, data leaders in relevant industries ensure that patient data remains protected while their organization maintains optimal compliance.
Analysis: Increasingly critical data compliance challenges in 2025
Based on these trends, data leaders are in the hot seat—responsible in large part for helping their organizations prepare to navigate these changing tides of data compliance.
Doing so creates specific challenges for anyone in these roles, including the mounting complexities of new regulations (both broad and niche), the persistent need to keep data de-siloed, and consumers who, on average, care more about the information they share online, and who expect far more transparency from those who use it.
Keeping pace with stricter regulations and global standardization
In addition to APRA, as mentioned in our introduction, 2025 will witness the emergence of new state privacy laws in Delaware, Iowa, and Minnesota. These laws will further complicate the already intricate framework of regulations in the United States.
As always, evolving data compliance regulations demand continuous monitoring and adaptation to avoid non-compliance penalties, which can include fines, reputational damage, and increased scrutiny from regulatory bodies.
That said, rising cyber threats and vulnerabilities compound this challenge and force organizations to adopt stronger safeguards and security standards, such as those defined by SOX, PCI DSS, and HIPAA.
Breaking down data silos to enhance accessibility and governance
Data silos will continue to be significant barriers to compliance in 2025. Fragmented data spread across systems or departments prevents organizations from implementing consistent security controls, such as access control and authentication, which are critical for ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. These silos also hinder effective governance and make it difficult to meet requirements for data accuracy, accessibility, and storage management.
Breaking down silos enables a more comprehensive view of operations. This, in turn, not only improves efficiency and overall data quality but also facilitates the alignment of data handling practices with compliance frameworks.
For organizations that are managing sensitive customer or health information, this step is critical for maintaining regulatory compliance, particularly under laws like GDPR and HIPAA.
Embedding privacy by design into compliance foundations
Privacy by Design (PbD) is increasingly becoming a regulatory mandate under frameworks like Europe’s GDPR, Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (LGPD), and emerging US privacy laws. This approach requires organizations to proactively embed privacy considerations into the design and development of systems, processes, and products rather than applying them retroactively.
By 2025, PbD will be integral for managing compliance across industries and will ensure that safeguards for personal data—including data deletion protocols—are in place throughout the data lifecycle. However, implementing PbD can be challenging, as it requires cross-functional data collaboration between legal, IT, and product development teams to ensure they consistently prioritize consumer privacy.
As technologies like AI create new opportunities and risks, organizations will need to align their AI governance efforts with privacy regulations to address emerging ethical concerns while maintaining compliance. PbD will remain a cornerstone of these efforts, ensuring the design of systems and processes anticipate and mitigate compliance vulnerabilities from the outset.
Action: 3 key strategies for adjusting to 2025’s evolving compliance needs
As it stands, data leaders should begin rethinking (or at least thoroughly considering) their current approaches to compliance. Despite high stakes, most won't need to scratch their current strategies and processes completely.
The value here is to reconcile what's worked in the past with what must work in the near future—optimizing solutions to address evolving demands to help their organizations both keep pace and stay competitive.
1. Embrace upstream data contracts
Data contracts are agreements between data producers and consumers. They define how data is structured, shared, and maintained. As such, a data contract that is drafted and implemented upstream enforces data quality, schema consistency, and compliance requirements at the data lifecycle’s inception point. This is why data contracts are particularly critical for navigating stricter data privacy laws, such as APRA or GDPR, as well as sector-specific mandates like HIPAA in healthcare.
By embedding these contracts into CI/CD pipelines, companies can automate the enforcement of data standards, which reduces the risk of non-compliance due to schema-breaking changes or poor-quality data.
This proactive approach supports governance frameworks and ensures that organizations handle sensitive data, like health information and customer data, in full compliance with regulations.
Data contracts also reduce technical debt and align all stakeholders on data handling requirements, which is increasingly important as organizations face global standardization pressures and localization mandates.
2. Automate your data lineage processes and audits
Automated data lineage tools provide a real-time view of how data moves through an organization, from its origin to its final destination. Transparent data flows are essential for demonstrating compliance with evolving data compliance regulations—such as GDPR or PCI DSS—and meeting industry-specific requirements, including those in the payment card industry or healthcare.
Automated lineage tools simplify compliance reporting by creating audit trails that regulators can review efficiently. These tools also ensure that data deletion and access protocols align with privacy regulations. As regulations grow more complex in 2025, real-time monitoring and lineage automation will be critical for identifying vulnerabilities, ensuring compliance across data lifecycles, and reducing the manual burden on compliance teams.
3. Invest in staff training and promote optimal awareness
Human error remains a significant factor in compliance failures and data breaches. Training employees on evolving regulations, cybersecurity best practices, and internal compliance protocols is essential to mitigate this risk. In sectors like healthcare, where compliance with HIPAA and privacy-focused regulations is paramount, staff awareness plays a critical role in protecting health information.
Regular training programs help organizations adapt to regulatory changes and foster a culture of privacy and data integrity. This approach ensures that employees understand their responsibilities in managing sensitive data, from implementing access controls to adhering to secure data storage and deletion standards.
Planning ahead: Future-proof your organization’s compliance framework by shifting data left
Moving forward into 2025, we can agree that proactive and integrated data compliance will be essential, not optional. VPs of data must lead the way by building scalable, adaptable compliance frameworks that meet regulatory demands and protect organizational trust.
But for these leaders, it’s of critical importance to understand that high stakes are best managed well before cards ever hit the table. The answers here are upstream, embracing tools and technologies that prevent data compliance from becoming a gamble in the first place.
Fortunately, those tools are no trend. They’re here now. Which is why we recommend said leaders join others who have already signed up for our product waitlist—to learn more at Gable.ai.
