Get the best value from your data by reducing risk and building trust

Users are increasingly concerned about how their data is harvested and used. Data privacy is an essential ingredient of trust in a business and is thus inextricably linked to growth.  

Data privacy is the control of data harvested, stored, utilized, and shared in compliance with data protection regulations and privacy best practices. Data privacy encompasses controlling data from unauthorized access, obtaining consent from data subjects as required, and ensuring data integrity. According to a recent IDC Infobrief, 60% of enterprises are now addressing regulations for the use of data as a top priority. ¹ 

Data privacy tools are pivotal to partners and customers trusting that their data will be securely handled. By embracing a data privacy strategy, enterprises are seen to be handling sensitive data responsibly. 

Better control and understanding of data assets 

Understanding where data is and what it is being used for is central to data privacy. Data catalogs and integration tools provide an invaluable inventory of data assets to optimize data discovery and business efficiencies while ensuring regulatory compliance and consistent information quality.  

A data catalog provides a single source of truth to manage and secure data centrally. It enables enterprises to organize their data structure and manage all data, including data sources and data sets. For example, it can also provide additional information on the data’s source and value. As well as supporting data governance, it enhances data accuracy.  

It is vital to map relationships between data entities to reduce redundancies and make analysis more accurate by reducing errors and repetition. It also enables trends in data to be spotted more easily. 

Assess data risk regularly 

Data risk is potentially detrimental to the business due to data mismanagement, inadequate data governance, and poor data security.  

Data risk that isn’t recognized and mitigated can often result in a costly security breach. To improve security posture, enterprises need to have an effective strategy for managing data, ensure data protection is compliant with regulations and look for solutions that provide access controls, end-to-end encryption, and zero-trust access, for example.    

Assessing data risk is not a tick-box exercise. The attack landscape is constantly changing, and enterprises must assess their data risk regularly to evaluate their security and privacy best practices. 

Keep track of customer requests 

Data subject access requests are when an individual submits an inquiry asking how their personal data is harvested, stored, and used. It is a requirement of several data privacy regulations, including GDPR.  

It is recommended that enterprises automate these data subject requests to make them easier to track, preserve data integrity, and are handled swiftly to avoid penalties.  

Update contractual clauses (SCCs) 

Enterprises should update standard data protection contractual clauses (SCCs) with geo-specific information to see the territorial scope. SCCs ensure data protection safeguards can be used for data transfers from the European Union to third countries.  

Regulatory litigation for non-compliance has been increasing, and enterprises must expect to be under closer scrutiny regarding SCCs.  

Data privacy needs to be a proactive action. 

Data privacy goes hand in hand with trust. Therefore, enterprises must adopt a continuous, holistic approach to operationalizing data privacy across the entire organization. One that is robust yet flexible enough to adapt to evolving risks and regulations.  

To find out more, sign up for the Orange Business Webinar here.  

^{[1] IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Orange Business, A Framework to Earn and Sustain Customer Trust, Mitigate Risk, and Drive Revenue Growth, #EUR150405923, June 2023}