Good compliance is good for growth 

It’s easier to build a great privacy culture when you’re overseeing a team of 50, rather than 500. Implement the right training, guidelines and procedures early so it’s ingrained as your team grows. It’s easy for accountability gaps to widen as organisations become more complex but appointing privacy champions across your business keeps compliance front of mind. Champions should span every department and every location. 

Privacy boosts innovation

When your team knows exactly what they can and can’t do with the data your organisation holds, they feel empowered to act. With the wealth of technology now available – from artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, wearable tech, behavioural prediction and more – data collection is at an all-time high. Good privacy compliance at every stage can enable faster, more intelligent development of personalised products and services, reveal opportunities for growth in new markets, and create a more efficient, productive workplace.  

You’ll give your sales team more confidence

Organisations are only as secure as their employees keep them. Team members that deal with a lot of personal information at scale, such as sales and business development professionals, need appropriate training so they don’t leave the organisation vulnerable to a breach. Scale ups are often focused on closing deals fast but expanding that sales pipeline also increases the amount of risk. When your sales team are appropriately trained, they’ll feel able to make the right decisions quickly, and ready to position your dedication to privacy as a promotable asset. 

Employees want to work for ethical companies

Good privacy compliance is not just about avoiding fines. Making data protection a core ethos of your business can be a key differentiator when you’re looking to recruit the best talent. Millennials (born 1981-1996), who will make up 75% of the workforce by 2025, are looking for employers that align with their values. Members of Gen Z (born 1997-2015) go further – they’re the first generation to prioritise purpose over salary. They expect employers to show authenticity, consistency and to care deeply about the world around them. Being careful with people’s personal data is an important part of that.  

It boosts trust

Frequent data breaches can destroy the trust that a business fosters with customers and clients. Almost half (41%) of consumers say they’ll never return to a business after a breach and 92% of the public feel uncomfortable about the number of companies that collect data about them. Being able to demonstrate good practice, including being transparent about the data you are collecting and why, will set you apart from the pack. Start by conducting a data audit to make sure you know how personal data flows around your company, and ensure you can always deal with subject access requests efficiently – whether it’s one or 100. 

People will want to do business with you

As part of good privacy compliance, organisations have a responsibility to check those businesses they’re sharing data with also have good practices. Under the GDPR, a business can be fined for failure to perform due diligence on third parties that it shares data with. Clients want to see that you’re not collecting and storing too much personal information, that you’re not using it for an unauthorised purpose, that you can transfer data securely, and that you have sufficient data security measures in place.

You’ll be well placed to expand into new markets or services

If you’re already thinking about privacy compliance, you’ll be well aware of the need to make privacy part of everything that you do.  Whether that be the need to carry out data protection assessments before developing new products, or thinking about how to transfer data safely and within the law when expanding into new markets. Being aware of what you can or can’t do may help your business scale faster than your competitors.

Investors care about good privacy compliance 

Complying with privacy laws plays a significant role in a company’s value too. A privacy breach can ruin a company’s reputation and prospects, and investors will be looking for any potential issues before they commit. In the case of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal for example, Facebook’s stock plummeted 18%. 

Regulators demand businesses get this right

For those working in the financial, health, and telecom sectors, for example, good privacy compliance is an important step in achieving authorisation to practice. In what can be a long enough process as it is – Monzo Bank for example launched in early 2015 but didn’t have a banking licence until 18 months later – you don’t want privacy to hold up progress. 

Getting it wrong can be expensive

Scaling up is a tremendous achievement and only happens as a result of hard work, clear vision and a passionate executive team. Falling foul of regulation such as the GDPR comes with heavy penalties (up to €20m or 4% of global turnover), reputational damage and can require a lot of time to put right. That could mean serious interruption at a critical stage. It’s imperative that scale up leaders do all they can to ensure they’ve got this right. 

Build a culture of continuous privacy compliance

At the Privacy Compliance Hub, we make compliance easy for everyone to understand, care about and commit to. We call it a culture of continuous privacy compliance. Our platform, created by two ex-Google lawyers, provides a structured programme to follow, with a suite of engaging, relatable training videos and powerful reporting tools. You’ll have the confidence you’re keeping your customers, investors and the regulators happy.