The world’s most popular data privacy issues include GDPR fines, reputational damage, regulatory penalties and operational setbacks. Consumers demand transparency and a say in how their data is collected, stored and used. In the absence of federal data privacy laws, states are leading the way with legislation such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. Many businesses are also implementing first-of-its-kind data broker regulations and establishing new, stricter data usage policies for sensitive information such as location, fingerprints, or facial recognition scans.
One of the biggest challenges is maintaining consumer trust after a data breach. Even if a company’s security measures prevent a cyber attack from succeeding, breaches still impact customer loyalty and revenue. Reputational damage, class action lawsuits and costly compliance fines are a real possibility for companies who fail to prioritize data privacy.
A well-defined data privacy policy includes a clear description of what types of data are collected and how it is used. Data should be categorized and classified based on its level of sensitivity, industry requirements, compliance standards and other factors. Policies should also detail how data is accessed, used and destroyed.
Internally, it’s important for organizations to regularly back up data using a 3-2-1 backup method (three copies of critical data on two local devices and one offsite backup). This will enable them to recover data quickly in the event of an incident. This practice also helps reduce data storage and bandwidth costs.