The report Cisco Data Privacy Benchmark Study says that events around the Coronavirus crisis around the world have led to a greater appreciation of the concept of privacy among organizations.
According to the Cisco report, privacy is receiving more attention from organizations. Privacy budgets doubled in 2020. On average, this is now $ 2,4 million per organization surveyed. A total of 4.400 security professionals who also deal with privacy answered the questions. The general opinion on privacy legislation is positive. In addition, 90 percent of respondents indicate that external privacy certificates (such as ISO 27701 and EU Binding Corporate Rules) play an important role in choosing products, services and suppliers.
One of the main reasons for the increase in attention is the situation around Covid-19. Working from home has become and is the norm. This raises questions about privacy. In addition, there was also a greater awareness of privacy among employees. They combine private and professional situations in situations of domestic work and want their privacy to be guaranteed.
In itself, the reasons above are quite logical, from a traditional perspective of data privacy. As an organization, you focus on your data and your optimal protection. However, analysts see the main change taking place here, based on the results of the report. “It's not just about data privacy anymore, which was a long time ago”, they say. This is only part of the privacy issue.
Party that is strongly driven within organizations by the desire to comply with guidelines, laws and other rules. “Now it's about privacy in the broadest sense”. With that, he refers to the impact of privacy on other parts that an organization must deal with.
By the way, the study is not conclusive on whether this relationship between the maturity of the privacy policy and the commercial success of an organization is causal. "To do this, you would really have to ask customers whether privacy was really an important reason for choosing a supplier," say the analysts. In any case, the signs of this study seem to point in that direction.
