Following many high-profile data breaches, consumers have elevated data privacy to front-page news and included it as criteria for brand selection and engagement. Consumers around the globe now realize that they aren’t always aware or informed about how their private information is used or shared. Fifty-four percent of consumers are more concerned with protecting their personal information than they were a year ago, according to a survey reported by Security Magazine. Furthermore, 78% of respondents stated they would stop engaging with a brand online if the brand experienced a data breach. When a business practices strong privacy compliance, it can shorten the sales cycle and increase customer trust, according to another third-party study. Data privacy impacts the bottom line and business executives are more keenly aware of its growing importance in today’s always-on digital environment.

Read on to learn why data privacy is critical to your business and view some easy-to-use tools to help along the way to reach your goals. With an estimated 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created daily, it’s imperative to have better transparency and control regarding data use and sharing. A data breach can lead to sensitive personal information getting into the hands of cybercriminals, competitors, and dangerous nation-state attackers. Password reuse also means that leaked personal login details likely impact professional applications and resources as well.

Why Data Privacy and Data Security is so Important

Data privacy involves ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data to safeguard against unauthorized use. It’s defined as exercising control over how Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is collected, stored, or used for an individual. Organizations like yours are responsible for being good data stewards of your employee data as well as customer data. For businesses, data security builds upon PII to protect intellectual property, operating plans, and confidential financial results.

The data privacy landscape is changing as regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and General Data Protection Act (GDPR) raise the bar for organizations to adopt in meeting consumer expectations and new legislation. Data privacy and cybersecurity are converging as people, processes, and technology protect against advanced threats and stealth data breaches.  As NIST points out, an investment in data privacy increases trust in systems, products, and services across your entire supply chain. You will need to balance the risk and reward of data privacy and information security according to your security maturity and risk posture. Staying ahead of evolving data privacy requirements simplifies operations and enhances your customer loyalty, compliance mandates, and competitive advantage.

Data Privacy Toolkit

Data privacy regulations are stringent. Not complying with them could result in fines, damage to your company’s reputation, or could force you to close your doors. Below are a few data privacy resources to leverage online.

• HIPAA
• PCI DSS
• GDPR
• CCPA
• Video: Tidal Wave of Data Privacy Compliance in America

As a business, here are a few things you can do to ensure you’re safeguarding your customers’ data.

• Implement early warning solutions, like Log Management, which provides visibility into unauthorized data access and rogue internal employees.
• Leverage a 24/7/365 SOC (Security Operations Center) to fully monitor, detect, investigate, and respond to threats.
• Engage an experienced Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) to augment your capabilities.

Protecting information for your business is just as important as protecting your personal information. Here are some tips to safeguard your data.

• 5 tips to help protect your data
• Help create a data protection community

EventTracker is Netsurion’s SOC-as-a-Service (SOCaaS) solution with its scalable multi-tenant architecture and proven outcomes that provides powerful, affordable threat protection and data security to your customers. Learn more about Lumifi.