The business contact information and other data we collect and process are an integral part of our products and services. Regulators around the world have adopted or proposed requirements regarding the collection, use, transfer, security, storage, destruction, and other processing of personal data. Our products and services rely heavily on the collection and use of information to provide effective insights to our customers and users. In recent years, there has been an increase in attention to and regulation of data protection and data privacy across the globe, including the enactment of the GDPR, the United Kingdom's transposition of GDPR into its domestic laws following Brexit in January 2021, India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act passed in August 2023, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, and similar comprehensive privacy laws adopted in eighteen other states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and Utah. Meanwhile, around the world there are ongoing discussions about how best to revise and modernize existing laws in jurisdictions such as Canada and Australia. Laws such as these give rise to an increasingly complex set of compliance obligations on us, as well as on many of our customers. These laws are not always uniform in the way they define and treat certain data types, including business-to-business data, biometric data or so called "sensitive" data, and we must often update our consumer notices and adapt our compliance programs to account for the differences between applicable laws. These laws can impose restrictions on our ability to gather personal data and provide such personal data to our customers, provide individuals with additional rights around their personal data, and place downstream obligations on our customers relating to their use of the information we provide.
Domestically, as members of the Republican Party now control both the White House and Congress, the national landscape has shifted. It is unclear if members of Congress will have enough votes to pass a Federal privacy law and while AI remains top of discussion in Congress, members of the Republican Party have indicated a pivot from comprehensive regulations in favor of less restrictions. Additionally, at Federal agencies including the FTC, it is unclear what the current Administration's enforcement priorities will be and how the push to move away from additional regulations will be reflected at each relevant agency. This likely means states will continue to pursue both AI and privacy legislation. Nineteen states now have comprehensive privacy laws, and recently, dozens of additional states have pending legislation for both AI and privacy.
These complex laws may be implemented, interpreted, or enforced in a non-uniform or inconsistent way across jurisdictions and we may not be aware of every development that impacts our business. These laws may also require us to make additional changes to our services in order for us or our customers to comply with such legal requirements. It may also increase our potential liability as a result of higher potential penalties for noncompliance.
These and other legal requirements could reduce our ability to gather personal data used in our products and services. They could reduce demand for our services, require us to take on more onerous obligations in our contracts, require us to add new provisions in our customer contracts related to the processing of personal information, and restrict our ability to store, transfer and process personal data. In some cases, it may impact our ability or our customers' ability to offer our services in certain locations, to deploy our solutions, to reach current and prospective customers, or to derive insights from data globally. One area of particular risk remains data transfers between the United States and the European Union. On July 10, 2023, the European Commission adopted its adequacy decision for the EU-US DPF, 18 months after its predecessor, the EU-US Privacy Shield, was invalidated. While this does, for the time, assert that entities operating in the United States who have certified to the DPF ensure an adequate level of protection for transferring personal data from the European Union to the United States, future challenges seem imminent. The privacy advocacy organization NOYB, which previously challenged and facilitated the demise of both the Safe Harbor (Schrems I) and Privacy Shield (Schrems II) has already criticized the DPF for not doing enough to provide non-US citizens with reasonable privacy protections afforded to US citizens. The NOYB has more recently called the validity of the DPF into question in light of changes the White House is making to the members of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which is tasked with overseeing U.S. surveillance practices and addressing complaints from EU citizens under the DPF. ZoomInfo is certified under the DPF, but still utilizes Standard Contractual Clauses as its cross-border transfer mechanism due to the uncertain future of the DPF. In the event any court blocks personal data transfers to or from a particular jurisdiction on the basis that certain or all such transfer mechanisms are not legally adequate, this could give rise to operational interruption in the performance of services for customers and internal processing of employee information, greater costs to implement alternative data transfer mechanisms that are still permitted, regulatory liabilities, or reputational harm.
The cost of complying with existing or new data privacy or data protection laws and regulations may limit our ability to gather the personal data needed to provide our products and services. It could negatively impact the use or adoption of our products and services or products and services similar to ours, reduce overall demand for our products and services, or products and services similar to ours, make it more difficult for us or competitive solutions to meet expectations from or commitments to customers and users, lead to significant fines, penalties, or liabilities for noncompliance, impact our reputation, or slow the pace at which we close sales transactions, any of which could harm our business.
Furthermore, the uncertain and shifting regulatory environment and trust climate may cause concerns regarding data privacy and may cause our vendors, customers, users, or our customers' customers to decline to provide the data necessary to allow us to offer our services to our customers and users effectively, or could prompt individuals to opt out of our collection of their personal data. Even the perception that the privacy of personal data is not satisfactorily protected or does not meet regulatory requirements could discourage prospective customers from subscribing to our products or services or discourage current customers from renewing their subscriptions.
In addition, the regulatory landscape is particularly complex and rapidly evolving with respect to AI technologies. New regulations specifically targeting AI development, deployment, and data usage are being proposed and implemented across various jurisdictions. These regulations may impose additional obligations related to algorithmic transparency, bias testing, and specific data protection measures for AI systems. Our AI-driven products and services may be subject to increased scrutiny under these new frameworks.
Compliance with any of the foregoing laws and regulations can be costly and can delay or impede the development of new products or services. We may incur substantial fines if we violate any laws or regulations relating to the collection or use of personal data. Our actual or alleged failure to comply with applicable privacy or data protection laws, regulations, and policies, or to protect personal data, could result in enforcement actions and significant penalties against us, which could result in negative publicity or costs, subject us to claims or other remedies, and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.