2023 will be a pivotal year for privacy and cybersecurity. With laws like the California Privacy Rights Privacy Act and data privacy laws in Colorado and Utah, among others, set to go into effect, businesses across the U.S. will have more privacy compliance obligations on their hands. This year also saw one of the most advanced efforts on the federal level to set nationwide federal privacy standards that can cut through the patchwork of state laws. While that effort ultimately came up short, there’s still some possibility it could be revived in the coming months.

Privacy regulations may be changing even faster in another area of the federal government. In addition to its broader antitrust focus, this year saw the FTC move to crackdown on certain commercial data surveillance practices, which has already produced some notable actions and changes in enforcement strategy.