Articles

The Top Challenges in Privacy Management

Benchmarking Your Company’s Privacy Program

With a growing number of disparate privacy regulations worldwide, more companies are turning to privacy management software solutions built for this purpose.

Currently, those that have done so have been most effective in managing privacy, as evidenced by their scores on TrustArc’s Global Privacy Index.

With capabilities to manage the many elements of privacy required, the strong majority of Privacy professionals are likely to favor such a solution.

Now in its second year, the 2021 TrustArc Global Privacy Benchmarks Report highlights how companies’ priorities and strategic approaches to data privacy and security are evolving and what their top challenges in privacy management and compliance readiness are.

Key findings from the 2021 Global Privacy Benchmarks Report include:

• Privacy is becoming a priority at the highest levels: 83% of enterprises have created formal Privacy Offices this year compared with 67% in 2020, an increase of 16 percentage points.
• Increasing security risks are a key factor in privacy prioritization: Cybersecurity risks from third parties or attackers are a top privacy concern for leaders, with 51% highlighting it as their top challenge for 2021.
• Privacy work is never done: Across all roles, from senior executives to full-time employees, 73% agree or strongly agree they should do more on privacy.

“What we see is worry on privacy from many angles, alongside many new regulations.

The Pandemic accelerated these issues, with many workplaces shifting to work from home. It exposed vulnerabilities, with more breaches and cybersecurity attacks happening,” said Chris Babel, CEO of TrustArc.

“Privacy teams and individuals have a lot more to manage, at a time when more threats are emerging.

To do their job well, they require a solid underpinning of security and they require tools to manage privacy in all its many forms across many more privacy regulations.”

Purpose-built privacy software is the season’s must-have.

The Report found that companies enhanced their privacy management strategies substantially within the last year.

The use of purpose-built privacy software stood out in increasing competence and confidence in an enterprise’s ability to manage privacy.

While there’s evidence that stand-alone solutions can be effective in managing specific compliance requirements such as cookie consent, the data indicates that companies with a comprehensive strategic and reportable privacy management platform score significantly higher on the Global Privacy Index.

Maintaining a privacy culture that permeates from the Board of Directors through the ranks, as well as incorporating privacy into core business strategy, were other distinguishing features of these privacy leaders.