Greater Focus on Privacy Pays Off for Firms

Greater Focus on Privacy Pays Off for Firms
Privacy-mature companies complete sales more quickly, have fewer and less serious breaches, and recover from incidents faster, according to Cisco's annual survey.

Companies that invest in privacy see an average return of 270% on their investments, with seven out of 10 companies seeing significant benefits from their privacy expenditures, according to an annual survey published by Cisco today.


In addition, more mature companies — as measured by a five-point accountability score — saw greater returns on their privacy investments, with high-scoring companies seeing an average benefit of 3.1 times return, compared to low-scoring companies, which saw an average benefit of 2.3 times return, according to the "Cisco Data Privacy Benchmark Study 2020." The report, based on a survey of 2,500 security professionals familiar with their companies' privacy practices, underscores that privacy programs are no longer just about avoiding fines but about building trust with customers, says Robert Waitman, director of privacy insights and innovation at Cisco.


"Privacy is not just about being minimally compliant with the laws, which have been changing and becoming more comprehensive. We are seeing other business value from our privacy investments," he says. "Companies that made privacy investments saw fewer breaches, less costly ones, and less down time. That's not a coincidence."


Privacy and data security has grown to become an enormous issue for companies. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has cost companies significantly: British Airways faces a £183 million (US$240 million) fine for website flaws that led to the harvesting of information on a half-million customers. Hotel chain Marriot also faces a significant fine — £99 million (US$130 million) — for a breach that affected 500 million guests of subsidiary Starwood Hotels


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