As data risks multiply and AI adoption accelerates, 2025 marks a high-stakes year for global compliance. From sweeping EU regulations to state-level US privacy laws and India’s long-awaited data protection act, enterprise leaders need to stay ahead of rapidly shifting obligations. This guide breaks down the top regulations taking effect or seeing major enforcement in 2025—what they mean, who’s affected, what’s at stake, and how BigID helps organizations manage risk, ensure security, and meet evolving global requirements.
1. DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act – EU)
Effective Date: January 17, 2025
Summary: DORA is a landmark regulation that standardizes digital operational resilience requirements across the EU financial sector. It enforces stringent obligations around ICT risk management, third-party oversight, threat-led penetration testing, and mandatory incident reporting.
Who’s Affected: Banks, insurance firms, investment companies, fintechs, and their critical third-party ICT service providers.
How BigID Helps:
- Identify and classify sensitive financial and operational data across cloud, SaaS, and on-prem environments
- Map third-party data flows and assess exposure risks for vendors and processors
- Provide automated reporting and contextual visibility for incident management
2. EU AI Act (First Enforcement Phase)
Effective Date: Mid-2025 (exact date TBD)
Summary: The EU AI Act sets a risk-based framework for regulating artificial intelligence. In 2025, the initial enforcement wave bans unacceptable-risk AI uses, including manipulative techniques, social scoring, and real-time biometric surveillance.
Who’s Affected: Any organization that develops, deploys, or integrates AI systems within the EU—or whose systems affect EU residents.
How BigID Helps:
- Inventory AI models and the training data powering them
- Classify sensitive attributes within data used for model training and inference
- Conduct AI data governance assessments and document audit trails for compliance
3. NIS2 Directive (EU)
Effective Date: Early 2025
Summary: NIS2 replaces the original Network and Information Security Directive, expanding the sectors and entities covered. It imposes stricter rules for cyber hygiene, incident response, supply chain risk, and executive accountability.
Who’s Affected: Over 160,000 public and private organizations in the EU, including energy, transport, health, digital infrastructure, manufacturing, and cloud service providers.
How BigID Helps:
- Identify regulated or critical data assets vulnerable to cyber incidents
- Support policy enforcement and retention for audit and risk review
- Enable cross-border breach readiness and forensic response through data lineage mapping
4. Law 25 (Québec, Canada)
Effective Date: Fully enforced as of September 22, 2024; full-year compliance begins in 2025
Summary: Québec’s Law 25 (formerly Bill 64) introduces new individual rights, mandatory privacy impact assessments (PIAs), enhanced breach notification rules, and strict consent requirements.
Who’s Affected: Any public or private organization that collects or processes the personal information of Québec residents.
How BigID Helps:
- Generate, manage, and automate PIAs for new data initiatives
- Discover and tag personal and sensitive information across all repositories
- Automate rights management and consent handling across systems
5. India Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA)
Effective Date: July 2025
Summary: India’s DPDPA establishes a modern privacy regime built around notice, consent, limited retention, and fiduciary responsibilities.
It includes steep penalties for noncompliance and mandates swift breach reporting.
Who’s Affected: Any entity processing digital personal data of individuals in India, whether local or cross-border.
How BigID Helps:
- Automatically identify personal data by geography and data principal
- Enforce purpose limitation and storage minimization through policy-based controls
- Enable end-to-end breach detection, response, and notification workflows
6. US State Privacy Laws Taking Effect in 2025
Effective Dates:
- Montana, Iowa, Delaware, Indiana: January 1, 2025
- Tennessee: July 1, 2025
Summary: These laws reflect a growing wave of state-level privacy regulation in the U.S., providing residents with rights to access, delete, correct, and opt out of personal data processing—including profiling and targeted advertising.
Who’s Affected: Businesses exceeding defined revenue or data processing thresholds and operating in or collecting data from these states.
How BigID Helps:
- Unify data discovery across state lines for regulatory alignment
- Automate DSARs, preference centers, and opt-out workflows at scale
- Maintain a dynamic compliance framework as state laws evolve
7. SEC Cybersecurity Disclosure Rules (US)
Full Enforcement Year: 2025
Summary: The SEC now requires public companies to disclose material cybersecurity incidents within four business days and mandates annual reporting on risk oversight, including board-level accountability.
Who’s Affected: All publicly traded companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges.
How BigID Helps:
- Detect and contextualize exposure of regulated or high-value data
- Generate detailed evidence and timelines for incident disclosures
- Align security practices with governance mandates for executive oversight
8. ISO/IEC 42001 (AI Management Systems)
Enterprise Adoption Begins: 2025
Summary: ISO/IEC 42001 provides a globally recognized management system standard for responsible AI development and deployment, emphasizing documentation, risk assessment, and lifecycle monitoring.
Who’s Affected: Enterprises using or building AI technologies—especially in highly regulated industries or pursuing AI assurance certifications.
How BigID Helps:
- Map and monitor AI-related data sources, lineage, and access
- Support internal controls for explainability and fairness
- Provide documentation for audits and ISO alignment
9. Potential COPPA Revisions (US)
Expected: Proposed updates in 2025
Summary: The FTC is revising COPPA to address modern concerns like teen data privacy, AI profiling, and expanded parental consent obligations. New rules could increase enforcement scope and penalties.
Who’s Affected: Online services, platforms, edtech, and apps targeting children and teenagers or knowingly collecting their data.
How BigID Helps:
- Identify underage user data across structured and unstructured sources
- Enforce contextual access and use policies
- Surface profiling activity for risk review and mitigation
10. Australia Privacy Act Reforms
Expected Timeline: Draft legislation in late 2025
Summary: Following a multi-year review, Australia is moving toward a GDPR-style overhaul, with new rights (erasure, portability), stricter breach requirements, and limitations on AI-driven data use.
Who’s Affected: Any organization collecting or processing personal information of Australian residents.
How BigID Helps:
- Enable regional data tagging, rights management, and consent workflows
- Implement breach response tied to real-time data impact
- Build futureproof compliance architecture with flexible governance controls
Stay Ahead of Global Privacy & AI Risk with BigID
2025 represents a turning point for enterprises grappling with data visibility, regulatory sprawl, and AI accountability. BigID helps organizations proactively manage sensitive data, scale privacy operations, and automate compliance across jurisdictions. Whether preparing for DORA, adapting to India’s DPDPA, or managing a growing patchwork of U.S. privacy laws, BigID connects the dots between data governance and regulatory resilience—so you don’t just meet requirements, you lead the way.
To see BigID in action, book a 1:1 demo with our compliance experts today.
Author
