Privacy regulations terminology
This document provides definitions for key terms related to privacy regulations supported by Adobe Experience Cloud.
A
Australia Privacy Act (Privacy Act): An act that promotes and protects individuals’ privacy and regulates how Australian Government agencies and organization handle personal information. The Privacy Act includes principles that apply to private sector organizations. For example, individuals are afforded the right to understand why the personal information is being collected and how it will be used, the ability to access, erase their data, and correct personal information.
B
Binding corporate rules (BCRs): A set of binding rules put in place to allow multinational companies and organizations to transfer personal data that they control from the EU to their affiliates outside the EU (but within the organization).
Biometric data Any personal data relating to the physical, physiological, or behavioral characteristics of an individual which allows their unique identification.
C
CCPA: The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives California residents more control over the personal information that businesses collect from then. The law provides several new rights to consumers, including the right to access and the personal information collected from them, and the right to opt out of the sale of their personal information to third parties.
CPA: The Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) provides Colorado consumers additional insight into what personal data controllers collect, share, and sell, and how that data is used. The CPA protects the personal data of Colorado residents when they act in an individual or household context. These rules detail the technical specifications for one or more universal opt-out mechanisms. These mechanisms clearly communicate a consumer’s affirmative, freely given, and unambiguous choice to opt out of the processing of personal data for purposes of targeted advertising or the sale of personal data.
CTDPA: The Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA) grants Connecticut residents certain rights over their personal data and establishes responsibilities and privacy protection standards for data controllers that process their personal data. The CTDPA grants them the following rights: to access, correct, delete, obtain a copy, or opt-out of the sale; processing; or profiling of their personal data. The CTDPA protects a Connecticut resident acting as an individual or in a household context.
Consent: Freely given, specific, informed, and explicit consent by statement or action signifying agreement to the processing of their personal data.
D
Data concerning health: Any personal data related to the physical or mental health of an individual or the provision of health services to them.
Data controller: The entity that determines the purposes, conditions, and means of the processing of personal data.
Data erasure: This is also known as the Right to be Forgotten. It entitles the data subject to have the data controller erase their personal data, cease further dissemination of the data, and potentially have third parties cease processing of the data.
Data portability: The requirement for controllers to provide the data subject with a copy of his or her data in a format that allows for easy use with another controller.
Data processor: The entity that processes data on behalf of the Data Controller.
Data protection authority: National authorities tasked with the protection of data and privacy as well as monitoring and enforcement of the data protection regulations within the Union.
Data protection officer: An expert on data privacy who works independently to ensure that an entity is adhering to the policies and procedures detailed in the GDPR.
Data subject: A natural person whose personal data is processed by a controller or processor.
Delaware Personal Data Privacy Act: The Delaware Personal Data Privacy Act provides Delaware residents rights to access, correct, delete, and opt out of personal data sales and targeted advertising. The Act applies to businesses processing data for at least 35,000 consumers or earning over 20% of revenue from data sales impacting 10,000+ consumers. Enforced by the Department of Justice, it includes mandatory data protection practices and a 60-day period to address violations.
Delegated acts: Non-legislative acts enacted to supplement the existing legislation and provide criteria or clarity.
Derogation: An exemption from a law.
Directive: A legislative act that sets out a goal that all EU countries must achieve through their own national laws.
E
Encrypted data: Personal data that is protected through technological measures to ensure that the data is only accessible/readable by persons with specified access.
Enterprise: Any entity engaged in economic activity, regardless of legal form, including persons, partnerships, associations, and so on.
Explicit consent: A standard of consent which involves a specific, informed, and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes in oral or written form. Put simply, the data subject must literally, and explicitly say “I consent” or “I agree” in order for the consent to be considered explicit. In addition, it must be as easy to withdraw consent as it is to give it.
F
Filing system: Any specific set of personal data that is accessible according to specific criteria, or able to be queried.
FDBR: The Florida Digital Bill of Rights (FDBR) is legislation that provides Florida residents with the rights to access, correct, delete, and copy their personal data. It mandates transparency in data practices, allows opt-outs for data sales or targeted advertising, and prohibits unauthorized surveillance. The Florida Department of Legal Affairs enforces these rights, requiring data controllers to respond to requests within 45 days.
G
GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information of individuals within the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR sets out the principles for data management and the rights of the individual, while also imposing fines that can be revenue-based. GDPR covers all companies that deal with the data of EEA citizens, so it is a critical regulation for corporate compliance officers at banks, insurers, and other financial companies.
Genetic data: Data concerning the characteristics of an individual which are inherited or acquired which give unique information about the health or physiology of the individual.
Group of undertakings: A controlling undertaking and its controlled undertakings.
H
I
Identity Management Services (IMS): The Adobe implementation of Federated ID and OAuth 2.0 for authentication of Adobe ID users and authorization for Adobe resources. Integrate IMS with your Adobe application or service to enable your users to log in and access Adobe services. Users can log in directly with Renga (the Adobe identity services provider), or log in through a trusted third-party authentication domain (such as Google, Facebook, or a corporate/organization LDAP).
Implicit consent: Also known as unambiguous consent. Implicit consent refers to consent that was not explicitly given by the data subject, but is nonetheless unambiguous in nature. For example, during the sign-up process for a company website, a notice is given that by providing an email address, the data subject consents to receiving emails on special offers. If the data subject reads the notice, the affirmative action of entering their email is enough to be considered implicit consent.
IMS Org ID: Refers to an Adobe authorization token for service-to-service authentication, which does not require user login. It is issued to an IMS client, and has no associated user. An IMS client needs a service token to authorize back-channel requests between services. (The term “system token” is occasionally used to mean service token.)
Iowa Consumer Data Protection Act: A state privacy law that grants Iowa residents the right to access, delete, and opt out of the sale of their personal data. The ICDPA applies to businesses processing data for more than 100,000 Iowa residents or deriving over 50% of revenue from data sales. Notable exemptions include nonprofits and educational institutions. The law provides a 90-day cure period for businesses to correct violations before penalties are imposed.
J
K
L
LGPD: The Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD) aims to regulate the treatment of personal data of all individuals or natural persons in Brazil. The LGPD gives Brazil citizens the rights to access and delete their personal data, to know whether their personal data is sold or disclosed (and to whom), and the right to opt out of having their data sold to third parties.
M
Main establishment: The place within the Union that the main decisions surrounding data processing are made; with regard to the processor.
MHMDAa: The Washington My Health My Data Act enhances privacy rights for consumers regarding their health data. It mandates disclosures, consumer consent, and deletion rights for health data, and prohibits the sale of health data without authorization. Additionally, the Act makes it unlawful to use geofencing around healthcare facilities.
Montana Consumer Data Privacy Act: This law gives Montana residents rights to access, correct, delete, and request copies of their personal data. The MCDPA applies to businesses that process data for over 50,000 Montana consumers and emphasizes the protection of sensitive personal data, such as biometric and genetic information. It enforces transparency around data collection, sharing, and selling practices.
N
Nebraska Data Protection Act: A privacy law that provides Nebraskans the right to access, correct, delete, and opt out of the sale of their personal data. It applies to businesses that meet specific data processing and revenue thresholds. The NDPA also requires businesses to implement reasonable data security measures and offers a 30-day cure period to resolve violations before penalties are applied.
New Hampshire Privacy Act: This regulation protects the personal data of New Hampshire residents by granting them rights to access, delete, and transfer their data. It mandates businesses to disclose their data collection and sharing practices and allows consumers to opt out of data sales. The NHDPA applies to companies that meet specified data processing thresholds.
New Jersey Data Protection Act: A comprehensive state privacy law that provides New Jersey residents with rights to access, correct, and delete personal data. It includes opt-out mechanisms for data sales and targeted advertising. The NJDPA applies to businesses processing large volumes of consumer data and requires transparency in how businesses handle personal information.
O
OCPA: The Oregon Consumer Privacy Act (OCPA) legislation grants Oregon residents key rights over their personal data, including the rights to know, correct, delete, and obtain a copy of their data. It imposes strict obligations on businesses, requiring them to provide detailed privacy notices, gain consent for certain data uses, and implement heightened protections for sensitive information. The legislation aims to balance consumer privacy with business interests.
P
PDPA: The Personal Data Protection Act of Thailand (PDPA) was introduced to safeguard Thai data owners from the illegal collection, use, or disclosure of their personal data. Inspired by the European Union’s GDPR, the regulation grants Thai citizens the right to request access to, or the deletion of, their stored personal data.
Personal data: Any information related to a natural person or ‘Data Subject’, that can be used to directly or indirectly identify the person.
Personal data breach: A breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful access to, destruction, misuse, and so on, of personal data.
Privacy by design: A principle that calls for the inclusion of data protection from the onset of the designing of systems, rather than an addition.
Privacy Impact Assessment: A tool used to identify and reduce the privacy risks of entities by analyzing the personal data that are processed and the policies in place to protect the data.
Processing: Any operation performed on personal data, whether by automated means, including collection, use, recording, and so on.
Profiling: Any automated processing of personal data intended to evaluate, analyze, or predict data subject behavior.
Pseudonymization: The processing of personal data such that it can no longer be attributed to a single data subject without the use of additional data, so long as that additional data stays separate to ensure non-attribution.
Q
Quebec Law 25: Quebec Law 25 enhances privacy rights for residents, mandating explicit consent, data minimization, and rights to access, correct, delete, and transfer personal data. Organizations must appoint a privacy officer, conduct privacy impact assessments, and report breaches. Compliance deadlines and significant penalties apply for violations.
R
Recipient: Entity to which the personal data are disclosed.
Regulation: A binding legislative act that must be applied in its entirety across the Union.
Representative: Any person in the Union explicitly designated by the controller to be addressed by the supervisory authorities.
Right to be forgotten: This is also known as data erasure. It entitles the data subject to have the data controller erase their personal data, cease further dissemination of the data, and potentially have third parties cease processing of the data.
Right to access: Also known as Subject Access Right, it entitles the data subject to have access to and information about the personal data that a controller has concerning them.
S
Sensitive data: Sensitive data is any personal data may affect the data subject. More specifically, it pertains to data of racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religions or philosophical beliefs, sexual behavior, criminal records, health data, disability, trade union information, genetic data, biometric data.
Subject Access Right: Also known as the Right to Access, it entitles the data subject to have access to and information about the personal data that a controller has concerning them.
Supervisory authority: A public authority which is established by a member state in accordance with article 46.
T
TDPSA: The Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA) is a comprehensive legislation that protects Texas residents’ personal data rights. It grants individuals the right to access, correct, delete, and obtain copies of their data and to opt out of data sales and targeted advertising. Businesses violating this legislation can face financial penalties.
Trilogues: Trilogues are informal negotiations between the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union. These negotiations are usually held following the first readings of proposed legislation to more quickly agree to a compromise text to be adopted.
agree on the adoption of a compromise text more quickly.
U
UCPA: The Utah Consumer Privacy Act creates the right for a consumer to know what personal data a business collects, how the business uses their personal data, and whether the business sells their personal data. Consumers can require the business to delete or stop selling their personal data.
Unambiguous consent: Unambiguous consent is also known as implicit consent. Unambiguous consent refers to consent that was not explicitly given by the data subject, but is nonetheless unambiguous in nature. For example, during the sign-up process for a company website, a notice is given that by providing an email address, the data subject consents to receiving emails on special offers. If the data subject reads the notice, the affirmative action of entering their email is enough to be considered unambiguous consent.