2025 data privacy trends: Predictions from the Didomi team

To kick off the new year, we sat down with our leadership team to discuss 2025 and what their predictions for the biggest upcoming trends are. 

‍

Read on, or scroll down to the end of the article for a shorter video version.

‍

What will be the biggest data privacy trend in 2025?

Two main answers emerged when we asked this question to our leadership team: The prevalence of privacy and consent, and the need for innovative standards and solutions to face upcoming challenges. 

‍

Privacy and consent will continue to be the cornerstone of digital strategies in 2025

Last year has seen many changes in our industry, as our CEO highlighted in his 2024 review, and 2025 will be no different. More regulations, more enforcements, but also more opportunities for organizations to stand out and deliver great Privacy Experiences to their clients.

‍

Our VP Product, Jeff Wheeler, highlights some of the areas and trends he sees in the coming year:

‍

As we step into 2025, privacy will no longer be a regulatory checkbox—it will be the cornerstone of digital trust. Businesses must embrace privacy as a strategic advantage, prioritizing transparency, consumer empowerment, and innovation. Consent management, enhanced scanning capabilities, the shift to server-side technologies, and the rise of Connected TV (CTV) as a critical data channel will play pivotal roles in ensuring compliance and building secure, scalable solutions.

‍‍In Europe, where stringent regulations like GDPR continue to evolve, businesses will need to stay ahead by embedding privacy at the core of their operations. Meanwhile, in the U.S., a patchwork of state laws and emerging federal discussions will push companies to adopt flexible, interoperable solutions. Those who align with this vision will not only meet regulatory demands but also foster lasting relationships with their customers in an increasingly data-conscious world.

- Jeff Wheeler, VP Product at Didomi

‍

Data privacy in the United States, the growth of CTV as an advertising channel or the rise of server-side technologies are only a few of the opportunities ahead for privacy-conscious organizations.

‍

While exciting, our co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer, Raphaël Boukris, notes that this prospect will also require a keen sense of adaptability, and the ability to work with the right partners, to be successful:

‍

I think that adaptability will still be the keyword for privacy in 2025. With Microsoft Consent Mode, more and more data privacy laws at the U.S. state level, the AI Act, national laws and more, companies will need to constantly adapt and choose their best partners to do it successfully - aiming for compliance while maximizing business opportunities.

- Raphaël Boukris, Chief Revenue Officer and co-founder at Didomi

‍

The importance of consent was a standout point when we ran the same exercise last year, notably in light of new legislative efforts such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA), non-privacy regulations where user consent was a very important component.

‍

In 2025, this focus will continue to be critical at every stage of the customer relationship, with increasing requirements and expectations from regulators and scrutiny from consumers and industry groups, as highlighted by our VP of Strategy, Frank Ducret:

‍

The scope of consent now extends to all aspects of our lives, whether it relates to social or civic relationships (such as consent to taxation) or interactions between brands and consumers. Whether as part of a relational or regulatory framework, consent is becoming a central pillar of these dynamics.

‍In response to this evolution, ensuring complete traceability of consent—whether it is given, modified, or withdrawn—has become a critical challenge. Integrating this vision into the core of martech and adtech ecosystems is essential to enhancing transparency and trust in the relationships between brands and their audiences.

- Frank Ducret, VP strategy at Didomi

‍

Revisit our article on the traceability of consent to explore a fascinating use case that will be more relevant than ever in 2025:

‍

{{learn-more-consent-lineage}}

‍

Upcoming data privacy and business challenges will require new, innovative solutions in 2025

In light of the constant evolution of the data privacy ecosystem and the changes ahead, the other half of our team focused on the need for organizations and the industry in general to adapt with new technologies, standards, or approaches to compliance.

‍

No post about data privacy trends is complete without mentioning the end of third-party cookies, and with the latest developments from Google on that front, our Director of Customer Success Charlotte Perrin chose to mention the importance of exploring cookieless alternatives, such as server-side tagging, data clean rooms, or universal ID solutions:

‍

In my opinion, the biggest privacy trend in 2025 will be the evolution of cookieless technologies and the way it will redefine digital advertising.

- Charlotte Perrin, Director of Customer Success at Didomi

‍

For our CEO, Romain Gauthier, the biggest data privacy trend for 2025 will be standardization:

‍

I think the biggest data privacy trend for 2025 is going to be standardization. 

It may not be a new trend but it's one that is critical for the data privacy category in general. We know of initiatives like the TCF for consent in the AdTech space, and other standards emerging around IAB like GPP in the U.S., but standardization is also needed in other verticals for other regulations.

It's a really exciting space where, at Didomi, we try to monitor and contribute as much as we can, and I believe it will be a key element of the future of data privacy.


- Romain Gauthier, CEO and co-founder at Didomi

‍

We discussed this need for standardization previously, and the emergence of frameworks like fiDA in the financial sector is an indicator that a verticalization of privacy is underway, something our CEO highlighted previously in one of his quarterly reflections on LinkedIn.

‍

Lastly, our Chief Privacy Officer, Thomas Adhumeau, who frequently shares his expertise and insights in this blog, highlighted the importance of monitoring in 2025:

‍

In 2025, beyond artificial intelligence, I think there will be growing accountability for service providers to make sure they actually monitor how consent is obtained on their behalf by owners of digital properties.

‍This has been a recurring theme in 2024 and I think it's only going to get bigger in 2025. We already had the Criteo case in France in 2023 where it was made clear that Data Protection Authorities (DPA) expect third-party providers, so long as they interact with digital properties or drop trackers, to make sure that consent was obtained validly - irrespective of any contractual clauses that might be in place.

‍For that reason, I think monitoring is clearly going to be a theme in 2025. We've already seen a wave of incoming enforcement in Germany, and I predict that more are on the way. Auditing your website or app every five years for compliance purposes is not going to cut it anymore.

- Thomas Adhumeau, Chief Privacy Officer at Didomi

‍

To read more about Thomas' thoughts surrounding this topic, head to his recent article:

‍

{{adtech-partner-monitoring}}

‍

What is the one data privacy topic everyone should pay attention to in 2025? 

To top off our interview, we asked members of our leadership team to share their opinion on the one data privacy topic everyone should pay attention to this year.

‍

Answers included AI, opt-out, first-party data, and more. To see their answers in detail and hear their complete predictions, check out our video interview with the team: