As privacy laws evolve globally, organizations face increasing complexity in adapting their data protection strategies to remain compliant. In this interview with his Help Net Security, Kabir Barday, CEO of OneTrust, emphasized that organizations can overcome compliance challenges by adopting Privacy by His design.
As privacy laws evolve globally, adapting data protection strategies to remain compliant becomes increasingly complex. How can organizations navigate this complexity, especially when faced with conflicting legal requirements from different jurisdictions?
There are currently 18 comprehensive state privacy laws in place across the United States, and additional federal laws are being proposed. The regulatory landscape is incredibly dynamic and shows no signs of letting up, with 4,500 significant regulatory updates occurring worldwide each year, or about 12 per day. Today, many businesses are responding to new regulations as they come into effect, but this ad hoc and reactive approach is inefficient and makes it difficult to keep up with the large number of laws and varying requirements. Masu.
A more sustainable, effective and proactive approach to data privacy compliance is privacy by design. This is achieved by building privacy protection into the very fabric of our technologies, products, and services. Our goal is not just compliance, but prioritizing privacy by design and respecting user privacy throughout the development and implementation process. By adopting this approach, organizations can stay ahead of evolving data privacy regulations and more effectively navigate new and changing regulations.
Many CISOs struggle with budget constraints when meeting compliance regulations. Given these challenges, what strategies can be implemented to advocate for increased funding for security and privacy programs?
Securing additional budget for security and privacy programs can be difficult if they are viewed as a regulatory burden or cost center rather than a strategic investment. To overcome this, my advice to CISOs is to demonstrate the value of compliance through metrics and benchmarks and emphasize the strategic importance of compliance by aligning it with business objectives.
For example, CISOs can align compliance efforts with the organization's data activation efforts to enable strategic use of data. Providing controls to manage data usage across your data assets while supporting data enablement across your organization helps you unlock the value of your data. As a result, meeting regulatory requirements is much easier.
In an age where data is as valuable as currency, investing in compliance technology is an investment in the future. It is important not only to comply with legal obligations, but also to gain a competitive advantage in a privacy-sensitive market and gain the valuable trust of consumers and stakeholders.
What core technical and physical security measures should organizations implement to support their privacy and data protection programs?
The core purpose of a data privacy program is to protect individuals' personal information, ensure legal compliance, and foster trust with stakeholders. To achieve this, organizations need to be able to:
- Understand your data footprint and shadow data within your organization: Data easily propagates throughout your organization.
- Enable compliant use of data: Maintaining regulatory compliance is becoming increasingly complex due to the proliferation of data privacy and AI laws.
- Implement consistent governance: Manage a clear set of policies across your data footprint, enforced by controls.
- Continuously monitor risk: Managing the risk of data loss and data breaches is a key concern.
What best practices can organizations adopt to ensure compliance with privacy regulations and strengthen their overall data security posture?
Data privacy best practices fall into several buckets:
- Move from a reactive to a proactive approach by developing repeatable processes for important privacy activities.
- Automate as much as possible. Focus on more strategic privacy efforts by leveraging automation for activities such as fulfilling data rights requests.
- Align your internal teams and resources to collaborate cross-functionally to increase awareness and efficiency. This also helps create a culture that values ​​and prioritizes privacy.
Following these best practices will help your organization mature its data privacy program and demonstrate the value of privacy.
What are the long-term consequences for organizations that fail to establish a comprehensive privacy/data protection/cybersecurity program?
An effective and comprehensive data privacy program plays a critical role in avoiding potential business risks such as non-compliance, data breaches and leaks, misuse of consumer data, and even compromised AI initiatives. . All of this can lead to a decline in consumer and stakeholder trust. And ultimately, it impacts your bottom line.
However, a robust and mature data privacy program offers significant benefits beyond compliance. As organizations face an urgency to build first-party datasets and pressure to innovate with data and AI, a strong data privacy foundation ensures data is compliant and ready for use. Helpful. This enables businesses to drive trusted innovation, harness the potential of data with AI, and navigate this data-centric era with confidence.