January 27, 2022

A new survey by Cisco has found that most IT and security experts believe that government data security laws have more advantages than disadvantages.

In the summer of 2021, more than 5,300 security experts from 27 countries from all major industries of varying sizes were interviewed for the survey.

83% of respondents are in favor of data protection laws that have a positive impact. According to the survey, a strong role of the state in protecting privacy is highly valued by respondents, as it can provide:

• Standard of care that is more consistent
• Better clarity on the rights and resources of data owners
• Guidelines on what data processing activities are allowed

The Cisco 2022 Data Privacy Benchmark Study also found that:

• Privacy is more important today for purchasing processes, management metrics and employee responsibilities
• ROI of improved privacy practices remains high for the third year in a row
• Customers want more transparency about how data is used in automated decisions
• Data localization requirements are vital but expensive
• Balancing privacy and security has financial and maturity advantages over other organizational models

The report showed that these two metrics illustrate the growing importance of privacy:

• 94% of respondents report privacy metrics to boards of directors
• Privacy ranked second among the top three pr

Privacy budgets increased by 13% from 2020 to an average of $2.7 million in 2021. Respondents also reported a good return on investment from this with more than 60% seeing significant benefits in the following areas:

• Loyalty and trust
• More attractive company
• Operational efficiency
• Agility and innovation
• Mitigating security losses
• Reducing sales delays

For costs, respondents in the U.S. reported 87% increased costs with compliance, while the U.K. was at 83%.

When assigning responsibility for managing privacy, 37% use the IT team and 34% the security team.

The survey also asked questions about acceptable use cases for personal data, such as matching sales representatives with customers, deciding credit worthiness and determining prices. Almost 50% of respondents said they would trust a company less if artificial intelligence was used for these decisions:

• Mental health counselling
• Job interviews
• Sports equipment marketing
• Creditworthiness

For more information, read the original story in TechRepublic.