The average business collects a massive amount of consumer data. It’s a huge responsibility to protect that data as a matter of regulatory compliance, security posture and competitive advantage. But with new privacy regulations and rising consumer expectations, businesses face many challenges in protecting data.

Data Privacy Issues

Whether it’s sensitive user information, financial details or intellectual property, hackers can access and steal data across diverse industries. This puts companies at risk of customer trust loss, fines and damage to their reputation. In addition, data breaches are increasingly common. The average company today handles thousands of gigabytes of data, which makes them a prime target for malicious actors.

While Americans are generally comfortable with certain uses of personal data, they tend to have a more negative view when it comes to how companies use their data in marketing, research or product development. This may be because consumers feel they don’t have control over the process and are skeptical about the impact of the data collection on their lives.

Almost all data privacy laws require that businesses limit data collection to the amount needed for specific purposes, which is called data minimisation. This requires a comprehensive database and data mapping strategy that limits data collection to the most relevant and necessary information for each use case, and that categorizes information appropriately so that it is not collected or stored more than required. Performing this work is time-consuming without automation. Getting it right can help to reduce liability, avoid costly cyber-attacks, minimise the risk of data breaches and non-compliance, and save on bandwidth and storage.