How PrivacyCentral Helps You Keep Pace with Global Privacy Laws and Automate Compliance

Staying compliant with global privacy laws today is like trying to keep your balance on a treadmill that keeps speeding up and is also on fire. The sheer volume and velocity of regulatory change have become a high-stakes puzzle for privacy professionals, particularly those tasked with protecting their organizations from fines, reputational damage, and operational chaos.

That’s where PrivacyCentral steps in—not just as a tool, but as a lifeline.

The compliance conundrum: Too many laws, too little time

As of January 2025, 144 countries have national data privacy laws. That’s over 80% of the global population, roughly 6.6 billion people​. And that’s just the global view.

Zoom in on the U.S., and it gets even more complex. State-level privacy laws have increased by 80% in the past year alone, with 16 new laws passed in just three years​. Eight more are set to go into effect in 2025.

And AI? It’s the new front line, with 120 AI-related bills introduced in Congress and 45 more at the state level​.

Each new law can cost U.S. businesses $15,000 to $60,000 or more to comply with, according to 2023 research by Engine and the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy​. And if you think those numbers sound scary, consider the $100,000 to $300,000 it can take to stand up an entire data privacy infrastructure.

That’s not just a line item. That’s a liability and a growing source of regulatory exposure.

From panic to program: A better way to manage global privacy compliance

Most privacy teams are under-resourced and overwhelmed. They’re forced to interpret, compare, and implement requirements from dozens of frameworks (often using spreadsheets and sheer willpower).

PrivacyCentral flips that script.

This purpose-built platform reduces the burden of compliance. It reinvents how privacy programs are built, managed, and scaled to help you automate privacy compliance and stay ahead of global privacy laws while reducing legal risk. Here’s how.

1. Cut compliance costs and time with automation

PrivacyCentral’s automation isn’t smoke and mirrors. It’s muscle.

From day one, it:

• Scans your business profile (industries, jurisdictions, employee footprint) to auto-identify applicable laws.
• Breaks down the requirements of each standard or law for you to assess and measure your organization’s compliance readiness across 140+ global privacy and security laws and standards, with 20,000+ pre-defined controls.
• Recommends specific remediation steps and operational templates so you can close compliance gaps efficiently.

Instead of spending months decoding new laws or amendments (or $400–$1,000 an hour on outside counsel), TrustArc’s in-house experts do the work for you, dynamically updating pre-defined laws and controls on the latest. Plus, you get a customized action plan, centralized evidence, and tracking for compliance readiness and effectiveness—all in one place​​.

Think of it like a Waze app for privacy compliance: it shows you the best route and reroutes you in real time as laws change.

Discover how much time and budget you could save with PrivacyCentral. Book your personalized demo.

2. Harness the power of common controls

Here’s the part most privacy laws don’t advertise: some of their requirements are materially similar, especially among U.S. state laws, making it possible to address multiple frameworks with common controls. Common controls can be appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect personal information.

PrivacyCentral automates overlap using common controls—materially similar requirements shared across laws like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, LGPD, and more​. That means:

• You assess once, and it applies to multiple laws.
• New requirements, you have an efficient baseline already established.

Using common controls drastically cuts duplication, shortens your compliance cycle, and does so faster.

3. Identify gaps and get guided remediation

Knowing what’s wrong is half the battle. But, fixing it without compliance work burnout? That’s the other half.

PrivacyCentral simplifies both.

• You answer control questions to assess where you comply and identify your gaps.
• You receive gap analyses and remediation suggestions aligned with business priorities.
• You can log your evidence and create, assign, and track tasks for others where needed.
• Measure compliance readiness and control effectiveness.
• Benchmark across your organization and report on your compliance.

It’s like having your privacy roadmap written for you. Just add action.

“TrustArc, through its PrivacyCentral platform, is helping us to identify gaps in our privacy and AI governance programs where we can better document policies, procedures, and notifications to align with requirements around the world.”

— Verified G2 User, Information Technology & Services

Ready to stop repeating the same tasks across frameworks? Learn how PrivacyCentral streamlines compliance.

4. Demonstrate accountability with real-time KPIs

Executives want dashboards. Regulators want evidence. Stakeholders want trust.

PrivacyCentral delivers all three:

• Real-time dashboards show where your organization stands against specific global privacy laws and overall program goals.
• Compliance KPIs measure maturity, effectiveness, and improvement over time.
• Configure a custom assessment based on the Nymity Privacy Management Accountability Framework (PMAF) standard for privacy maturity model assessment.

You can also tailor reports with side-by-side comparisons and trendlines for the boardroom or your next data protection authority review.

Plus, TrustArc supports key regulatory audit activities like data protection impact assessments (DPIAs), cross-border data transfer governance, and AI risk and readiness reviews—ensuring your program remains defensible under scrutiny.

Translation? You don’t just check boxes. You show progress and mitigate risk.

5. Scale a privacy program that grows with you

PrivacyCentral isn’t just for the Fortune 500. Whether you’re a lone privacy officer or a global matrixed organization, it’s built to scale.

• Organizational configurability lets you manage privacy across teams, regions, and departments.
• Role-based access ensures the right people are making decisions and tracking accountability.
• Scalability means starting small (e.g., CCPA, GDPR) and expanding as your risk profile evolves (e.g., AI, data transfers, ISO, NIST).

Case in point: A solo privacy practitioner at a startup used PrivacyCentral to build an enterprise-grade program without adding headcount​.

“PrivacyCentral is a great planning tool which helps us plan out the year and helps us understand and prioritize risk.”

— Mobile Engagement Software Customer

6. Build confidence, reduce risk, and prove ROI

A well-run privacy program is more than a compliance play. It’s a trust accelerator.

PrivacyCentral helps reduce:

• The number of privacy incidents by up to 80%​.
• The cost of internal and external audits by 35%.
• The time to compliance from eight weeks to three.

According to a Forrester Total Economic Impact study, the platform delivers a 126% ROI over three years, with an NPV of $2.08 million​.

That’s not just cost avoidance. That’s business enablement and reputational resilience.

“We have found it very helpful for streamlining privacy management without any time spent on understanding the new laws or how to interpret them. Its AI technology helps to analyze the company profile against all laws/policies and implement suitable policies. I also like the TrustArc support team which are technically strong and professionally resolved issues on time.”

— Harish, Senior Software Analyst

Compliance under pressure: PrivacyCentral as your tactical privacy program partner

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Stay compliant with 140+ privacy laws, avoid millions in fines, and make it all look effortless. Cue the theme music.

Fortunately, you don’t have to rappel into a spreadsheet solo. PrivacyCentral is your mission control—complete with automation to help you understand and prioritize risk as privacy program planning and management tool.

When the cost of getting it wrong is too high, the right platform makes all the difference. Request a PrivacyCentral demo to take the next step.

PrivacyCentral = Peace of mind in a chaotic world

PrivacyCentral delivers what modern privacy leaders need most: clarity amid complexity and control without compromise.

• Global readiness across 140+ national privacy laws, with over 20,000+ pre-defined controls.
• Reduced compliance costs, cutting the typical $15K–$60K per-law spend through automation and common control mapping.
• Elimination of manual tracking, replaced with intelligent workflows, pre-mapped controls, operational templates, and real-time dashboards.
• Program transparency, with centralized evidence, KPIs, and attestation capabilities to demonstrate accountability.
• Scalable program growth, from foundational compliance to advanced governance across regions, departments, and evolving frameworks.

With PrivacyCentral, privacy becomes a strategic advantage. So whether you’re building a program from scratch, managing a multi-jurisdictional rollout, navigating complex risks like AI regulations, or just trying to get your weekends back, PrivacyCentral gives you the confidence, clarity, and control to keep pace with global privacy laws and automate privacy compliance.

Because in privacy, standing still means falling behind. And with PrivacyCentral, you’re always a step ahead.