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ARTICLE · 12 JANUARY 2026

2026 Privacy Compliance Uplifts And Enforcement Risks

Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
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While the pace of new privacy legislation slowed last year, 2025 marked a significant pivot by regulators toward finalizing demanding regulations and starting aggressive enforcement.

United StatesPrivacy
Josh Hansen
Josh Hansen

While the pace of new privacy legislation slowed last year, 2025 marked a significant pivot by regulators toward finalizing demanding regulations and starting aggressive enforcement. For 2026, we recommend businesses shift from "wait and see" to active operational updates, particularly regarding opt-out signals, risky processing, and sensitive data processing.

Critical Risk—Executive Liability 

California is making executives have skin in the game. The state is requiring a member of a business's executive management team to attest to the accuracy of the business's risk assessments for certain processing of personal information (PI). This elevates privacy to a governance mandate with personal legal risks for the executive.

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