The technology firm Cisco published its 2023 Data Privacy Benchmark Study, and has concluded that, despite a difficult economic environment, companies continue to invest in privacy, starting with a significant increase in spending of 1.2 million of dollars just 3 years ago to 2.7 million dollars this year. However, they noted in their report, 92% of respondents believe their organization needs to do more to reassure customers about the use of their data, and that companies’ privacy priorities differ from those expressed by consumers. consumers.
Gap between consumer expectations and company privacy strategies
According to Cisco, the report finds a significant divergence between the data privacy measures adopted by companies and what is expected by consumers from organizations, especially when it relates to the way in which companies apply and use Artificial Intelligence ( AI).
The Cisco 2022 Consumer Privacy Survey showed that 60% of consumers are concerned about how organizations apply and use AI today, and 65% have already lost trust in organizations for their AI practices. Likewise, consumers would also have stated that the best way to feel more comfortable would be to offer them the possibility to unsubscribe from AI-based solutions, but it should be noted that, the privacy benchmarking seemed to show that providing opt-out opportunities it was the least chosen option (22%) among those that companies would implement to reassure consumers.
Harvey Jang, Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer at Cisco, pointed out that when it comes to earning trust, it is not enough to comply with the rules. However, transparency is the top priority for consumers (39%) to trust companies, while organizations surveyed rank compliance as the number one priority for building customer trust (30%).
“Although 96% of companies believe they have processes in place to meet the ethical and responsibility standards that customers expect from AI-based solutions and services, 92% of respondents believe their organization needs to do more to reassure customers about the privacy of their datas”, they reviewed from Cisco.
Return on investment in privacy
According to the Cisco report, despite a difficult economic environment, companies continue to invest in privacy, with spending increasing from $1.2 million 3 years ago to $2.7 million this year.
Besides, more than 70% of surveyed organizations indicated they were making a profit “significant” either “very significant” of private investmentsd, such as building trust with customers, reducing sales delays or mitigating losses from data breaches. On average, they highlighted from Cisco, organizations obtain benefits that are estimated at 1.8 times the expense, and 94% of all respondents indicated that they believe that the benefits of privacy outweigh the total costs.
In this sense, the report indicated that with privacy as a business priority, more and more organizations recognize that everyone in their organization plays a vital role in data protection, therefore, this year 95% of respondents I affirm that “all his employees” they should know how to protect data privacy.
Having said that, Dev Stahlkopf, Cisco Executive Vice President and General Counselhas stated the following: “A company’s approach to privacy goes beyond compliance with guidelines. Investing in it drives business value through sales, security, operations, and most importantly, trust.”
Data localization costs and increased trust in global providers
According to Cisco, hePrivacy law plays an important role in enabling governments to hold organizations accountable for the way they handle personal data, and 157 countries (up from 145 last year) now have privacy laws. Despite the fact that compliance with these laws involves significant effort and cost, 79% of all companies surveyed said that privacy laws have had a positive impact.
However, while 88% of those surveyed believe that their data would be safer if it were stored solely in their country or region, the research indicated that this does not hold up once costs, security and other trade-offs are considered, but surprisingly, 90% also said that a global provider, operating at scale, can better protect data compared to local providers.
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