Opinion by: Amal Ibraymi, legal advice to Aztec Labs
When cybercriminals violated the UnitedHealth’s tech unit in 2025, nearly 200 million people were exposed to their data. A few months later, Coinbase admitted that customer support agents abroad were bribed for accessing user data. These are inseparable events; These are symptoms of a broken system.
Existing compliance policies mean to protect US force companies in stockpile extensive amounts of sensitive personal data, creating inevitable honeypots for hackers. Most businesses do not want this responsibility, but regulators require this. This fact leads to understanding that privacy and obedience are an introduction to the odds.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Breakthroughs such as Proofs that zero-knowledge (ZK) And decentralized identity makes it possible to verify compliance without exposing sensitive personal data. This means to prove your age without revealing your birthday or confirmation of being eligible without disclosing your name. These technologies are script script: Privacy is not a cost of compliance; It becomes its most powerful allies and even a competitive advantage.
We were all forced to pay a privacy tax
For decades, compliance has acted like a shakedown of personal data. Regulators require companies to prove that they do not facilitate malicious activity and comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer’s (KYC) laws. Historically, the only way for these companies to ensure that this is to collect a large amount of sensitive data about their users to prove their customers’ identities.
The result? Very responsible responsibility. Data leaks do not only lead to embarrassing heads of heads; They put people at the risk of identity, phishing and fraud. The “collection compliance” model has become sunny businesses in data warehouses, vulnerable by design.
Thanks to innovations such as ZK-Proofs, apps can successfully comply with compliance policies without seeing or storing consumer data. Users can now confirm that they are not in a list of penalties without exposing their identities. They can also show that they are in the age of trade without revealing their births. For the first time in history, companies do not have to sacrifice user protection to comply with the rules.
Following without a role of paper is the future
We have tools to break this cycle. The use of ZK-Proofs to resolve the issue of consumer compliance and protection is not just a technical move; It is a philosophical. This change marked the end of “compliance through the collection” and defined the beginning of “compliance by calculation” and full privacy by default and design.
The ZK-Proofs are rewrite a rulebook in verification by removing the need for a paper paper as a whole. They empower individuals to handle their credentials and only share a sliver of information as needed. At the top of that, analytics that maintain privacy can add another layer of protection, which enables administration without forcing companies to dump wide amounts of raw personal data to centralized locations vulnerable to attacks.
Related: ZKPs can prove that I am old without telling you my age
These technical innovations are not just hypothetical today; They are acting. Last year, the Buenos Aires government combined ZK-Proofs In its city app to default its residents default. The app is designed to provide users access to city services and sensitive documents, allowing them to show that they are in the age of buying alcohol or to record their vaccination status without putting the risk of personal information.
Companies to prioritize privacy will get a competitive edge
Compliance is not optional for companies; This is important for ongoing operation. Enabling private data transactions is an option, however, and companies who choose to protect user data through ZK-Proof-powered solutions will have a competitive advantage, especially as consumers will increasingly recognize privacy as a priority.
ZK-Proof-enabled privacy solutions have also created extra economic incentives for implementation, such as increasing maintenance and reduced audit costs. Regulations that bodies expect businesses to implement strict standards to prove that they meet them, but in history, it has taken the form of companies that collect wealth troves of user data. Honeypots of this data attract evil actors and, in centralized systems, can lead to massive hack data that makes people vulnerable to identity theft, phishing scams and other attacks.
Compliance with privacy flows into the script: it allows companies to follow the rules while maintaining sensitive information in the table, developing confidence and reducing risk to a go.
Customers are likely to trust brands that may prove that they meet regulatory standards without stockpiling sensitive information. For example, tools such as verification of CIMOG NETWORK data and the Taceo Cosnark network confirm compliance while maintaining personal details in the books. Solutions such as Zkpassport Empower people to prove their nationality, age or residence without revealing unnecessary information in the identity space.
This is the future of obedience: proof without excessive excess. This procedure reduces the collapse of violations, reduction in overhead and aligned with global trends towards minimizing data as regulating European privacy laws and US state laws in the US. In tight markets, that combination is a significant point in sale. The brands that win are what might say, “We met every need, and we still don’t know your birthday.”
We aim to “adequate information”
Ultimately, the real question is not if we can afford privacy; This is if we can ignore it. Big tech and regulators should move despite data shaping and embracing new models that prove to follow while providing sufficient information. Following the maintenance of privacy is not just a mental experiment. Now, it’s possible, practical, and really necessary.
Opinion by: Amal Ibraymi, legal advice to Aztec Labs.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be done as legal or investment advice. The views, attitudes, and opinions expressed here are unique and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of the cointelegraph.
