"Everywhere you're looking on a globe, there is some tech policy or data legislation being passed," said Dr. Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, Director for the Future of Privacy Forum, a DC-based think tank and advocacy group focused on data privacy issues. She was speaking to Orchid's Derek Silva on this week's episode of the Priv8 Podcast.

"It's incredible how many things are happening in all directions...[It's as though] the world came to understand the impact that data, automated data-based decision making, and other new technologies can have on individuals and their communities."

For example, China is preparing to "adopt its own version of the GDPR called the 'Personal Information Protection Law,' or PIPL." The new law "will be applicable to all [entities in] the private sector, and if the current draft of the law will pass, some of it will be applicable to the public sector as well."

"Of course, there's some skepticism in policy circles about how this will actually come to be," Gabriela said. "But it is happening -- and it's only one small piece of a very broad tech policy [overhaul.] I wouldn't dare to call it a revolution, but I would say that it's definitely a change [compared to] the 'free-for-all' that was Chinese companies gathering data over the past several years."

On the other side of the globe, "if we're looking at Latin America, the most relevant and consequential developments are happening in Brazil--the country also recently passed its own version of the GDPR. Since then, Brazilians have been working to [enforce the law]: they've set up a data protection authority that's been very active in the past few months."

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Furthermore, "in Europe, we are starting to see an obvious ramping-up of the GDPR," Gabriela said, pointing to a recent instance in which the Spanish Data Protection Authority fined supermarket chain Mercadona €2.5 million for unlawful use of an intrusive facial recognition system. "This is just one of the very interesting cases that have happened [in the recent past.]"

Check out Derek's entire conversation with Gabriela. And don't forget to subscribe to Priv8 Podcast on your favorite streaming service.