4 Years of GDPR - No Method to the Madness

Since GDPR came into effect in 2018 effective privacy program management has become an integral part of compliance. However, despite fines passing the billion-mark in the last year, many companies are still struggling to operationalise their privacy operations to improve efficiency. In a world of unprecedented data growth, is a reactive approach to compliance sustainable in the long-term??

Leaving Behind Reactive Compliance??

The introduction of the GDPR has inspired a first of its kind worldwide regulatory movement, forcing businesses to become accountable for how personal data is handled within their organisation. Additionally, over the last four years, data privacy has been characterised by?constant legal developments and adaptations of good practice guidelines. In these circumstances, keeping up with company compliance obligations was initially an overwhelming task for legal teams. This was reflected in privacy programs which rarely went beyond meeting the requirements of the GDPR, resulting in privacy being an afterthought.??

While most would say that we have come a long way in privacy operations since then, the unfortunate reality is that?reactive compliance solutions continue to dominate. A recent survey run by QueryLayer revealed that 90% of organisations are still relying on flawed manual or semi-manual processes to deal with GDPR Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) and Erasure Requests. The time-consuming nature of these processes increases the likelihood of?misidentifying the data subject, as a thorough identity check cannot be performed manually under a tight deadline. On top of that, manual fulfilment is prone to human error, meaning that personal information could be?wrongly redacted or accidentally given to the wrong data subject. Therefore, reactive compliance is problematic from a risk management perspective since it creates more potential for a data breach to occur.?

Resistance to change can end up costing companies their reputation, the trust of their customers and employees, and make a significant dent in their finances. The key take away from the past is that compliance-driven policies are not sustainable.??

So, we must ask ourselves - How can we mitigate compliance risk and reduce the costs of privacy operations under a proactive approach??

A Proactive Approach O?n? ?P?a?p?e?r?? in Practice??

While at first privacy within organisations was viewed as a means of achieving compliance, we have learned that a comprehensive privacy program requires efficient operationalisation. This calls for the implementation of technological solutions which can automate business processes, otherwise proactive compliance only exists on paper. QueryLayer’s platform provides companies with the means to adopt and sustain a data protection by design approach by:?

• Building scalable privacy operations to make privacy programs actionable?
• Embedding privacy into business processes to increase efficiency??
• Leveraging pre-built integrations with existing data stack to reduce manual workload?
• Enabling cross-functional departments to benefit from advanced privacy?
• Facilitating transparency and greater control over data to improve consumer trust?

The?transition from reactive compliance to proactive privacy operations?provides the foundation for a sustainable and interconnected privacy program, capable of easily adapting to changes. However, this can only be done successfully if cross-functional team collaboration is supported by technology.?

Privacy responsibilities?can no longer be limited to legal and compliance teams, instead, they should be distributed across the entire organisation. In this way, potential weak links are eliminated, enhancing the smooth operation of DSARs, Record of Processing Activities (RoPAs), Erasure Requests, and Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs). As the list of necessary privacy operations continues to get longer, teams have to utilise privacy operation tools to implement efficient collaboration across the organisation. QueryLayer helps companies achieve this kind of collaboration by setting them up with a?platform that integrates all of their existing communication channels. This provides a beyond compliance resolution with minimal disruption to the workings of the organisation.

Adopting proactive privacy policies significantly?reduces operating costs when backed by technology. Companies that deployed full automation cut costs by 80% when compared to organisations without any automation. In summary, modern business requires modern privacy solutions.?

Looking forward - What is a realistic privacy strategy that ensures success in the long term??

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What the Future Holds?

Actionable Privacy Strategy

In the near future proactive privacy will no longer be the exception, as companies will have to adapt to meet the growing demand for good data practices among users.?KMPG?has found that 68% of consumers do not trust organisations to ethically sell their data. Gaining consumer trust should be at the forefront of privacy programs, with the aim of giving consumers more control over their data by creating a culture of transparency. However, this cannot be achieved by simply implementing a privacy program, it must be accompanied by an actionable privacy strategy delivered by privacy champions. Implementation of technology is crucial in enforcing a privacy strategy, allowing organisations to truly go beyond compliance by operationalising privacy programs.

Tech-savvy Privacy Program Manager?

An organisation cannot prepare for the future of privacy without making changes to the roles within a privacy team. While in the past legal and compliance teams typically dealt with all aspects of data protection in a company, the privacy program manager will soon become an essential hire. This new role involves?bridging the gap between legal teams and the rest of the organisation?by becoming a strategic resource. Being tech-savvy and having an understanding of the engineering end of privacy operations is also essential for efficient coordination. As the enforcer of the privacy strategy, the privacy program manager should enhance employee privacy training and advance proactive privacy initiatives.??

Beyond Compliance Automation

As organisations continue to expand and the number of systems they use grows, manual processes will not be able to support the increasing influx of personal data. Therefore, automation of processes such as DSARs and RoPAs will play a vital role in privacy strategy in the years to come. A?study?by Cisco found that 97% of companies that invested in ‘privacy beyond compliance’ solutions have seen benefits such as:?

• competitive advantage?
• operational efficiency?
• investor appeal?
• mitigating losses from data breaches and regulatory fines

At QueryLayer we are dedicated to helping organisations reap these benefits by supplying them with the tools to operationalise their privacy programs.?

As we can see, the future of data privacy is bright – But will we find ourselves dealing with the same issues in another 4 years???

QueryLayer?

We help organisations operationalise their privacy programs. Our Real-time Data Maps and Privacy Workflows help to build, streamline and automate Data Subject Requests, Records of Processing Activities, Vendor Management, and dozens of other Privacy Operations.

Get ahead now and make QueryLayer part of your proactive privacy strategy!?

Contact us?here?for a free product demo.??