Data privacy remains a continued concern for consumers and businesses. With consumers this tends to be concern with what businesses are doing with their data and with businesses this is about addressing the regulatory minefield.
Data privacy has a long history. On January 28, 1981 the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection, was signed. It remains important to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection best practices.
Today, data privacy refers to the protection of personal data from those who should not have access to it and the ability of individuals to determine who can access their personal information.
Looking at these topics for Digital Journal is Jason Needham, CEO of Cloudentity. For Needham, the important topic is engagement so that businesses and consumers can understand different perspectives when it comes to handling data.
Needham says it is necessary “for all types of organizations to have an open dialogue about data privacy, starting at the leadership level. Embracing customer privacy is increasingly an indication of a healthy brand, providing consumers with the confidence necessary to share their personal data.”
Businesses should focus on processing personal data carefully, and this means doing so based on adherence to the principles of transparency, legitimate purpose, and proportionality.
Looking at the regulatory measures, Needham thinks there is more to be done to protect the consumer: “While government regulators enforcing privacy laws such as GDPR, CCPA and CPRA are a step in the right direction, more needs to be done to protect consumers’ privacy and this needs to start at registration and continue through API-based data sharing.”
Needham says that if businesses do not adapt then the risk consumers existing from using their services. He forewarns: “A user’s experience around their privacy preferences is now critical to a company’s bottom line. And customer expectations are increasing as well, as users move from blanket consent to share their information towards a more granular way to specify what information can be shared to who.”
He adds further that: “Data privacy must be enforced while still providing a simple, easy-to-use customer experience. Gaining consent to share user data in a secure and seamless manner is possible with adaptive authentication and authorization to confirm the user and the third party are who they say they are.”
For businesses this means: “Having the right data security guardrails in place builds consumer trust and brand loyalty, allowing companies to become more competitive through an increased level of service and greater customer lifetime value.”
