Even without a federal data privacy law on the books, the U.S. isn’t the Wild West for emerging tech and data collection. According to speakers gathered Thursday for a Legalweek 2022 panel, moderated by David Horrigan, discovery counsel at Relativity, state laws and private-sector forces are keeping companies’ cybersecurity in line—to a point.

During “The Orwellian Nightmare? Emerging Technologies and Data Privacy” panel held Thursday, Ryan O’Leary, IDC privacy and legal technology research manager, noted that while companies are collecting staggering amounts of consumer data, many are not fully leveraging that resource.