Privacy has become “mission-critical”, with 90 percent of organisations considering it imperative to their business, according to a Cisco report.
The ‘2022 Data Privacy Benchmark’ study indicated that privacy investment continues to rise and organisations are witnessing a high return on investments from privacy spending.
“The study shows that privacy is increasingly becoming a fundamental responsibility for security professionals. This year, findings show that aligning privacy with security generates financial and other benefits,” said Fady Younes, cybersecurity director, Cisco Middle East and Africa.
For the second year in a row, 90 percent of respondents shared that they would not buy from an organisation that does not properly protect its data, and 91 percent indicated that external privacy certifications are important in their buying process.
“Privacy continues to rise in importance for organisations, regardless of their size or location,” Younes added.
Privacy’s Return on Investment (ROI) remains high for the third straight year, with respondents estimating their ROI to be 1.8 times spending on average.
The report also showed that more than 60 percent of respondents felt they were getting significant business value from privacy, especially when it comes to reducing sales delays, mitigating losses from data breaches, enabling innovation, achieving efficiency, building trust with customers, and making their company more attractive.
Privacy legislation continues to be very well-received around the world, with 83 percent of all corporate respondents stating that privacy laws have had a positive impact, and only 3 percent indicating the laws have had a negative impact.
As governments and organisations continue to demand further data protection, data localisation requirements are increasing – 92 percent of survey respondents said this has become an important issue for their organisations, while 88 percent said that localisation requirements are adding significant cost to their operations.
In terms of data usage, 92 percent of survey respondents recognise that their organisation has a responsibility to use data in a responsible manner only, and 87 percent believe they already have processes in place to ensure automated decision-making is done in accordance with customer expectations.
However, Cisco’s ‘2021 Consumer Privacy’ survey showed that many individuals still want more transparency – 56 percent are concerned about the use of data in AI and automated decision-making and 46 percent felt they cannot adequately protect their data because they do not understand what organisations are collecting and doing with their data.
