Every day, customers share their data with a multitude of businesses. From social networks to doctors’ offices, they are tasked with safeguarding all users’ information against companies’ abuse or hackers trying to get to this data for personal gain.
Data Privacy Week 2023 was created to instigate debates about the topic and create awareness about digital data protection among companies of all sizes and industries.
This way, we decided to start Data Privacy Week 2023 by discussing the future. What can we expect for the next 12 months and beyond?
Data Privacy legislation is booming
According to Gartner, by the end of 2023, 65% of the world’s population will have their data protected by legislation, going up from 10% in 2020.
Data Privacy Laws are becoming the norm in many countries: today, over 100 have specific legislation. In the US alone, a handful of states are in the final stages of launching their initiatives or are at least have bills ready to approve, according to IAPP.
Heavy fines will drive more strict compliance
The last year saw another boom, this time in fines imposed on organizations that did not comply with data privacy legislation.
In 2022, these were the most significant fines imposed in Europe under GDPR rules.
Meta Platforms, Inc. – €405m.
Meta Platforms Ireland Limited – €265m.
Clearview AI Inc. – €20m.
Clearview AI Inc. – €20m.
Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. – €17m.
Google LLC – €10m.
Clearview AI Inc. – €9m.
Although the main offenders are the ones you expect (Meta specially), no organization is free from taking a financial hit for overseeing critical legislation aspects.
2023 will be another year when heavy fines will still be trendy, so it pays off to be compliant and make sure employees know the legislations, to help enforce them in operations.
You may lose business because of data privacy
Just as bad as facing penalties from regulators is losing revenue because of data privacy issues. Customer awareness and action on the topic will only increase in 2023, hurting your bottom line if you can’t address the subject adequately.
Take this into consideration: 74% percent of customers have data privacy as one of their top values.
Not only are they aware of companies that abuse that trust, but they’re vocal about it: they are already demanding transparency to deal with their data, so in 2023 we’ll surely see an increase in data queries, complaints, and requests from customers.
Again, this comes down to your people. Employee training and awareness will firstly avoid the unintended abuse of personal data, but also how to deal with customers’ questions and expectations around the topic.
Speaking of employees, training will be one of the best ways of avoiding penalties
The usual response from organizations faced with complex legislation and hefty fines is to invest in technology.
Although these are most welcome, like Google’s Privacy Sandbox, in the end, people are still using the data inside organizations without having full knowledge of policies. And all it takes is one misuse of customer data to fall into the penalty wormhole.
Being so, 2023 has to be the year you ramp up or start up your cyber awareness training and management.
Security Awareness training deals with risks outside your organization, and it’s mandatory to avoid criminal threats and mistakes caused by mishandling customer data .
Talk to us today if you would like to know more about how we can help your organization with security awareness training.
