With heightened consumer consciousness about data privacy, regulators are moving fast to protect the data dignity of their citizens. Amid this wave of new regulations, businesses are looking for the responsible path forward with data privacy programs that operationalize privacy across the data ecosystem.
Building sustainable solutions for privacy requires that we solve both micro and macro challenges. We need privacy programs that can scale effectively across existing and future laws. Privacy also needs to be a foundational layer of the data ecosystem – so that peoples’ privacy choices are respected and enforced everywhere.
This year will usher in a new round of regulations concerning consumer data, making it an opportune time to take a look at why privacy compliance is complex and how we can make it less so.
Long on rules, short on tools
Compliance with GDPR imposed significant compliance costs on businesses, and the trend is continuing. In 2021, average privacy budgets increased 30% to $873,000, (increasing drastically based on company size) as outlined in the IAPP’s Annual Privacy Governance Report. Even with the increased budget, over 60% of respondents said their budget is less than sufficient to meet their needs. In short, businesses are crying out for tools to help them conquer the complexity in data privacy.
One of the reasons why compliance is difficult is that most companies don’t have a baseline understanding of the data they collect, store, and process – or if they did, it is static and point in time. Efficient and dynamic data discovery is foundational to an effective data privacy program.
For example, privacy regulations often require businesses to document risk assessments. GDPR alone creates obligations for Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) – a process to identify and minimize the data protection risk of a project. There are also Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA), Records of Processing Activities (ROPA), to name a few, with other regulations imposing similar obligations.
Building an always-on understanding of the data collected and stored across your business is key to driving cost effective, timely and accurate assessments.
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