Navigating the New Data Frontier: US Privacy Laws and the Global Oil & Gas Sector

Drafted By Kapil Ramjattan — knetworkssecurity.com|#GuyanaDigitalFuture

As we enter November, 2025 stands out not for the passage of a new federal privacy law, but for the aggressive operationalization of the laws already on the books. For the oil and gas industry, whose operations rely on a massive, interconnected digital ecosystem spanning the Permian Basin in Midland, Texas, and the offshore fields of Guyana, this year has been a critical wake-up call. The message is clear: data privacy is no longer a legal theory; it is an active, litigated, and financially significant operational risk.

Drawing from the US State Comprehensive Privacy Laws Report: 2025 Legislative Session and real-world enforcement actions, this article provides a year-in-review of 2025. It provides predictive analytics on where Midland and Guyana should focus their compliance efforts in 2026.

While the U.S. didn’t pass a brand-new federal privacy law in 2025, don’t be fooled. This year quietly became one of the busiest for expanding existing rules. States amended laws, brought new provisions online, and stepped up enforcement. For Midland’s oil & gas ecosystem and Guyanese firms partnering with U.S. companies, the message is simple: 2025 was your “Operationalize Privacy” year. The message for 2026: "Prove & Scale Privacy" year from Midland to Guyana, turn processes into performance, privacy controls you can demonstrate, not just document, security, data rights, and AI governance at scale.

1. 2025 Year-in-Review: The Privacy Enforcement Tsunami

The single most defining characteristic of 2025 was the shift from legislative debate to active, high-stakes enforcement.

A. The TDPSA and the Geolocation Showdown (Midland, Texas)

The Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA), effective July 1, 2024, became the centerpiece of state-level enforcement. The TDPSA is particularly relevant to the oil and gas sector because of its focus on geolocation data.

Real-World Case Study: The Allstate/Arity Lawsuit. In a landmark move in January 2025, the Texas Attorney General sued Allstate and its subsidiary, Arity, alleging they unlawfully collected, used, and sold Texans' geolocation and movement data in violation of the TDPSA [1]. While this case did not directly target an E&P operator, the implications for the oil and gas industry are profound:

•Operational Risk: Oil and gas companies rely heavily on telematics and GPS for fleet management, asset tracking, and optimizing field staff deployment. This operational data is often precise geolocation data.

•The "Sensitive Data" Line: The lawsuit signals that regulators view the collection and sale of location data as a high-risk activity. Any operator using third-party telematics or fleet management solutions must now audit their contracts and data flows to ensure they are not inadvertently "selling" or sharing this data without explicit consent, a requirement for sensitive data under the TDPSA.

B. The Broadening Scope and Universal Opt-Out

Beyond Texas, the overall US state privacy patchwork continued to expand in 2025 [2]:

•Lowering Thresholds: States like Connecticut and Montana lowered their applicability thresholds, sweeping more mid-sized businesses into compliance.

•Universal Opt-Out (UOOM/GPC): The requirement to honor global privacy control signals became mandatory in Texas and is phasing in across other states through early 2026. This means an operator's public-facing and internal web applications must be technically capable of recognizing and respecting a user's single privacy preference.

C. Guyana: The Data Sovereignty Mandate

In Guyana, the Data Protection Act of 2023 continued to solidify its position as the national standard. For international oil and gas companies, 2025 was the year they had to reconcile their US-centric corporate data policies with Guyana's robust data sovereignty requirements [3]. The core challenge has been ensuring that personal data collected from Guyanese employees, contractors, and local partners, especially when transferred to corporate servers in the US, meets the DPA's strict standards for cross-border data flow and purpose limitation.

2. Predictive Analytics for 2026: Where Midland and Guyana Must Focus

Based on the trends and enforcement actions of 2025, the following areas represent the highest-risk and highest-priority compliance focus for 2026.

A. The Biometric and Health Data Frontier

What: The expansion of "sensitive data" will heavily focus on biometrics and health data. Oil and gas companies use biometrics for access control (e.g., fingerprint scanners at secure facilities) and collect health data through mandatory drug testing, safety certifications, and wellness programs.

Why: Several states, including Texas, are seeing increased legislative and enforcement activity around biometric privacy. The TDPSA already has a strong focus on sensitive data, and any breach or misuse of biometric access logs or health records will likely draw immediate regulatory scrutiny.

How to Focus in 2026:

•Midland: Implement a Biometric Data Policy that requires explicit, written consent for all biometric collection, clearly stating the retention schedule and destruction protocol. Audit all access control systems to ensure compliance.

•Guyana: Ensure that the processing of employee health and safety data aligns with the DPA's requirements for sensitive personal data, including obtaining explicit consent and ensuring data is handled by a designated Data Protection Officer.

B. The Rise of AI and Profiling Assessments

What: The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning for workforce management, predictive maintenance, and safety analytics will accelerate. This includes "profiling" employees or contractors based on performance, location, or safety metrics.

Why: Privacy laws in states like Connecticut and others are increasingly mandating Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) for high-risk processing, especially profiling that leads to significant decisions about a consumer (or employee, in the future).

How to Focus in 2026:

•Midland & Guyana: Establish a formal AI/Profiling Review Committee. Any new project involving the automated analysis of personal data (e.g., using AI to predict which employees are "at-risk" for safety incidents) must undergo a mandatory DPIA before deployment to assess and mitigate privacy risks.

C. The Vendor and Supply Chain Risk

What: The TDPSA and other state laws place explicit, non-delegable duties on the data "Controller" (the oil and gas operator) to ensure their third-party "Processors" (vendors) are compliant.

Why: Enforcement in 2025 has shown that regulators will hold the primary company responsible for its vendors' failures. This is a critical vulnerability given the industry's complex, global supply chains, spanning cloud providers, HR software, and specialized telemetry services.

How to Focus in 2026:

•Midland & Guyana: Conduct a Q1 2026 Vendor Contract Audit. All contracts with third-party data processors must include mandatory Data Protection Addenda (DPAs) that explicitly cover TDPSA and DPA requirements, including obligations to respect Universal Opt-Out signals and assist with Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs).

3. K-Thoughts: Privacy as a Strategic Asset

The year 2025 was defined by the operational reality of data privacy laws. For oil and gas leadership in Midland and Guyana, 2026 must be the year of proactive compliance. By focusing on the high-risk areas of geolocation, biometrics, and AI profiling, and by treating their vendor ecosystem as an extension of their own compliance boundary, operators can transform regulatory risk into a strategic advantage, building trust, ensuring business continuity, and securing their place in the new data frontier.

References 

[1] Texas Attorney General. (2025, January 13). Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Allstate and Arity for Unlawfully Collecting, Using, and Selling Over 45 Million Texans' Data. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-allstate-and-arity-unlawfully-collecting-using-and-selling-over-45 [2] IAPP. (2025). US State Comprehensive Privacy Laws Report: 2025 Legislative Session. (Report provided by IAPP) [3] Parliament of Guyana. (2023). Data Protection Act 2023. https://www.parliament.gov.gy/publications/acts-of-parliament/dataprotectionact18of2023