Hello there. Welcome to this special MLEX podcast to mark Thursday, January the 28th International Data Privacy Day. The day is an international effort which is designed to raise awareness of data

privacy issues and to encourage individuals and businesses to respect privacy and safeguard data.

A worthy cause, no doubt, and an objective that underpins the regulation that is central

to Mlex's data privacy and security coverage.

My name is James Panicki.

I'm Mlex's Asia Pacific Senior Editor, and it's great to be with you.

And for this special edition of our podcast, we thought we'd take a big picture look at the

year that was and also glance ahead at 2021, which is already shaping up as a year of high drama

in privacy regulation and enforcement. And who better to consult than Mike Swift,

Emlex's chief global digital risk correspondent based in our San Francisco offices. I spoke to him

late on what was Tuesday on his side of the dateline, and I began by asking about

the establishment of privacy regulation agencies in several jurisdictions around the world,

including Brazil and India, and of course the key state of California.

What was the significance of these new agencies?

Well, this year we're really seeing some of the biggest and most influential internet

markets in the world who are passing comprehensive data protection laws and which are likely

to influence other economies around the world. So we've seen Brazil, which has passed a comprehensive law and its new data protection authority.

The ANPD basically took office in November.

We have India, which is expected by the end of April, to introduce its comprehensive privacy legislation into its

parliament. And we have California, which just today we reported that the process has begun to name

the board that will run the first U.S. stand-alone privacy enforcer, which will be created under the new

California law that voters passed in November.

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