Data privacy to be addressed during upcoming conference at 16 Tech

Data privacy issues will be on the agenda when the Indiana Technology and Innovation Association hosts its annual conference later this month.

The event, which takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 25 at 16 Tech, 1220 Waterway Blvd., is expected to attract 100 or more tech industry executives and state and local elected elected officials.

“It’s our marquee event of the year, our largest event,” said Jennifer Hallowell, the ITIA’s executive director. Established in 2018, the ITIA serves as a lobbying group for Indiana’s tech industry.

The event will feature a panel discussion on data privacy—a topic of keen interest for the ITIA and its constituents. Among the panelists is state Sen. Liz Brown, a Fort Wayne Republican who introduced data privacy legislation during the Legislature’s 2022 regular session—and who intends to do so again in the 2023 session.

Starting with California in 2018, a handful of states have passed comprehensive data privacy legislation, and many other states, including Indiana, have considered such legislation.

In Indiana, Brown’s bill passed the Senate but failed to advance in the House by the time the session ended in March. The House version of that bill would have, among other things, given consumers the right to have their personal data corrected or deleted and required data controllers to perform data protection assessments.

An aide to Brown said the senator plans to file the House version of that bill again for the 2023 legislative session.

Hallowell said the ITIA’s members would prefer to operate under one federal data privacy law “so that we didn’t have a 50-state patchwork.”

Since companies must comply with the law of each state in which they do business, having different data privacy rules in each state can create a lot of complexity for Hoosier businesses who may have customers around the country.

But since national-level data privacy legislation hasn’t yet emerged in the United States as it has in the European Union, Indiana and other states are working on their own legislation.

“States aren’t going to wait on the federal government,” Hallowell said.

In addition to the data privacy discussion, the ITIA’s conference agenda will also include a broader preview of ITIA’s 2023 policy agenda as well as remarks from Christopher Day, the new CEO at Indianapolis-based Elevate Ventures.

Tickets to the event are $199 for non-members. ITIA members and up to two of their guests get in free. Additional details and the registration portal can be found here.