USA Law and Practice Contributed by: Aly Dossa and Marcus Burnside, Chamberlain Hrdlicka
review of the enforcement actions and trends of a regulator is required. For state-level actions, there exists some case law but, due to the recent nature of these cases, many of them have not advanced far enough through the court systems to become precedential. For example, most CIPA litigation has not reached an appeals court that can release precedential opinions and, as such, the current case law is viewed more similar to enforce - ment trends rather than precedential case law. 2.3 Collective Redress Mechanisms In the US, collective redress mechanisms are referred to as class action lawsuits, which have been dis - cussed above. These lawsuits often last years and are commonly settled after key decisions are made by the presiding judge. 3. Requirements for the Protection and Processing of Non-Personal Data 3.1 Objectives and Scope of Data Regulation The United States does not have an overarching fed - eral framework comparable to the EU Data Act for governing non‑personal data or mandating cross‑sec - tor data access. Instead, US law relies on a patchwork of federal and state laws that that prioritise cyber - security, consumer protection and national security concerns over structured data‑sharing rights. As a result, companies do not have statutory entitlements to access or reuse non‑personal data; these arrange - ments are left largely to private contract. Federal statutes such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Electronic Communications Priva - cy Act protect systems and communications against unauthorised access (including access to non-per - sonal data); these statues do not address any form of lawful sharing. Similarly, federal policies related to cloud computing and data collected by IoT devices focus on security standards and not on allocating con - trol, access or portability of non‑personal data gener - ated by connected products or services. Currently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and various state Attorneys General (AGs) are taking the
lead in shaping non‑personal data handling, using its authority over “unfair or deceptive practices” to police inadequate security and harmful data uses. Enforce - ment actions increasingly address aggregated data - sets, location data, and inferred attributes when their downstream use creates meaningful risk to individu - als. While regulators (at the FTC and the state AGs) may demand reasonable security and truthful representa - tions, they cannot (and do not) impose openended governance frameworks or compel broad data sharing absent clear statutory authority. For in‑house coun - sel, this means enforcement exposure turns heavily on reasonable safeguards, precise disclosures and demonstrable risk management, rather than on com - pliance with a single, unified data‑governance statute. At present, there is not a clear path to a federal data protection law in the US. In response to the lack of federal legislation, various states have expanded their regulatory regimes to start addressing data sharing and access. Keeping tracking of the various changes in state data protection laws, of which there are cur - rently 19, will be key to managing legal risk. 3.2 Interaction of Data Regulation and Data Protection In the US, intellectual property rights for non-personal data primarily arise in the context of trade secrets, with access governed by contract, including confi - dentiality clauses. Data privacy frameworks operate independently and do not overlap with intellectual property rights. 3.3 Rights and Obligations Under Applicable The access to, use of and sharing of non-personal data is primarily governed by contract. Accordingly, parties’ rights and obligations must be determined on a contract-by-contract basis. Personal Data The United States lacks comprehensive federal data protection legislation. Instead, personal data is regu - lated through 19 state privacy laws and various sec - tor-specific federal statutes. Data Regulation Non-Personal Data
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