Why Does Data Protection Matter?

What is Privacy?

Privacy is the protection of personal information. Such data should be accessible to only the people who should rightfully have access. Examples include:

1. Personal data
2. Name,
3. Age,
4. Contact

Why is data protection important for an organisation?

Loss of data has an impact on customer trust, organisation’s reputations and financials.

Research says that:

• 65% of data breach victims lose trust in an organisation
• 85% are likely to tell people about their negative experience
• The estimated cost of a breach of data is $3.86 million

What are the consequences for ignoring the key aspects of data protection?

The average of the Top 5 privacy fines in Europe in the first 2 years that  GDPR came into effect is in excess of € 30 million.

• In the UK, Marriott Hotels was fined in excess of 20 million euros for insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of personal information
• In France, Google was fined Euro 50 million for the insufficient basis for processing data when Google account was created during the configuration of a mobile phone using the Android operating system
• In Germany, H&M was fined Euro 35 million for the insufficient basis for processing personal data when private life circumstances of some employees were recorded and information stored on network drive could be accessed by some the managers

In a situation where there is a loss of trust, financial costs to fix the situation and fines from authorities, it is also going to have an impact on the organisation's reputation and company’s equity valuation.

What is a Privacy Law?

Privacy laws define the rules for the processing of personal data, having a law means your privacy is more guaranteed than it is without a law.