5 Data Privacy Requirements for Business Leaders

Business leaders are under constant pressure to support business and explore new growth opportunities due to the disruptive nature of digital natives who have survived the dotcom bubble and are thriving. And then the digital landscape snowballed, followed by a pandemic that disrupted the way the world works. These events mainly benefited the digital natives who thrive on technology to become dominant players in their segment.

As business leaders worked their way through the pandemic, lingering geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe have had surprising effects on the global economy, which appeared to be recovering well from the effects of the pandemic before the conflict.

In fact, business leaders occasionally deal with such random events. For example, McKinsey estimates companies can expect supply chain disruptions lasting a month or more every 3.7 years. This is much more to deal with, so how can business leaders be ready to respond to and mitigate the effects of such events?

The answer lies with data-based decision-making and strategic execution. Achieving this is easier said than done: it requires a change in the way business leaders think about data and how it is managed.

Here are five data requirements business leaders should consider.

Collecting too much data is expensive

It is necessary to understand which data points should be collected and how they should then be processed and stored. The old idea that too much data can’t be bad for business is proving wrong: As data volumes grow exponentially, the cost of effectively managing and securing the data becomes time and cost-intensive. Therefore, it is essential to think about which data points should be collected and how long they should be kept.

Centralize data systems

It implies having a single source of truth and avoiding redundancies that don’t work in a synchronized way. By centralizing data systems and methodically choosing which data points to collect, different departments can seamlessly access the data they need and work optimally, for example by understanding customer journeys across products and services to deliver highly relevant content and experiences. It also simplifies serving Data Privacy requests and helps reduce compliance risk.

Manage data as a product

Different teams in an enterprise often build data pipelines and process data according to their individual needs. This makes it difficult for another team to leverage the processed data; instead they should process the same raw data according to their specific needs.

To extract more value from the data system and programs, business leaders must strategically consider managing data as a product as the next step towards centralizing data systems. This helps manage data in a way that serves multiple purposes and provides greater value for the entire enterprise.

Leverage technology for compliance

Companies already face a range of legal requirements. In addition, the regulatory landscape surrounding data management is evolving rapidly. Think of the regulations regarding the storage and processing of, among other things, health data, payment data or child data. And then there are regulations specifically designed to protect consumer data privacy, such as the GDPR.

On the plus side, as the regulatory landscape has grown, so has regtech, helping businesses manage compliance. Business leaders should actively explore regtech platforms that align well with compliance requirements and business priorities. At LoginRadius, for example, we balance the business need for identity management with compliance requirements.

Data privacy as a competitive advantage

Today, being proactive about data privacy is a competitive advantage. It can be clearly seen in the rise of privacy-focused alternatives to popular services such as Google Search, Microsoft Outlook, and Dropbox, among others.

Being privacy oriented doesn’t always require a radical change in the way business is done. It can start with a friendly privacy policy that specifies what data is collected and how it helps to deliver value to consumers, followed by clearly explaining how consumers can make data privacy requests and what the company is doing to protect the data.

Conclusion

Now that business leaders are well-equipped to meet today’s data governance and privacy needs, they must explore how to ensure that their data programs across the enterprise are future-ready. It is essential because the future of business will increasingly revolve around combining industry-specific expertise and technical know-how with data management capabilities.

Deepak Gupta is co-founder of LoginRadius, technical strategist, cybersecurity innovator and author.