Protecting customer data should always be a top priority for businesses. But doing so is increasingly extending beyond moral responsibility and taking on the form of legal requirement.

Brick-and-mortar retailers that have seen their businesses upended, and some literally destroyed, by the rise of e-commerce finally had a moment of vindication last week: The U.S. Supreme Court, in a landmark 5-4 ruling, basically gives states the green light to have online retailers collect sales tax just like any local retailer.

Dell is tracking where its products end up after they are collected — via the company’s U.S. consumer takeback program.

Mark Gath’s farmhouse in Luverne, Minnesota, sits 30 miles down country roads from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. From that base in the heartland, Gath, a sturdy man in boots and a blue shirt, farms more than 10,000 acres of corn and soybeans with the help of his wife, Leah, and sons Dalton and Stetson. Though his farm is larger than average, he feels squeezed by low commodity prices and the rising costs of seeds, pesticides and equipment. “Everyone is scared out here,” he says.