Data protection regulations are developed to ensure the security of individuals’ data and regulate the usage, collection, transfer, and disclosure of that data.
Technological advancements over the years have enabled societal shifts in ways that their usage is now ingrained in the smallest moments of our day-to-day lives. Many of these moments go unnoticed but have had and will continue to have a revolutionary impact on human existence.
In the backdrop of the existing Digital India Programme to make the country a digitally empowered nation, we witnessed a necessitated switch-over to a digital, electronic, and cloud forward economy, induced by the pandemic. As dependency on technology increases, data privacy and protection presents itself as an undisputable area of attention. Embracing technology and digitization has created vulnerabilities in terms of data leaks while industry, regulatory bodies, and consumers echo the need for strong data protection measures.
However, implementing strong security measures to prevent data breaches as the world becomes more digitally connected, requires adoption across levels. Government policies, business values & ethics, technological infrastructure, application deployment, and data storage, all will interplay in building a reliable and trustworthy ecosystem that supports further digital adoption by users.
Data protection regulations are developed to ensure the security of individuals’ data and regulate the usage, collection, transfer, and disclosure of that data. For service providers, complying with the government regulations will ensure first-level insulation of data protection. But, by going beyond the mandatory regulatory compliance and implementing stronger security measures, both, the business and the users will benefit greatly beyond the obvious, in the long term. However, the onus of deploying measures and sensitively handling consumer-generated data, while they interacted with a product or service will lie with the service provider.
Some noteworthy benefits of enabling data protection and privacy and avoid misuse of data include:
Negate Security Breach Incidents
By building a strong protection framework, we can safeguard sensitive and valuable information, a critical asset of the user. Big Data Encryption is one extremely relevant encrypting technique to obscure data in relational databases and on other big data platforms where the data is stored.
Data Access Governance is a platform that allows companies to manage data access permission. It is also helpful in finding sensitive slate data of the users which is easier to discover and clear as applicable.
These can help prevent cyber-attacks and naturally will help negate any potential for security breach incidents
Cost-Effective
Installing security into the system beforehand makes the process efficient by reducing development and support time which could be utilized for other tasks. Besides this, adding security right away can help the organization avoid inadvertent data loss.
Better Business Management
Data protection requires better management and storage of information which can be achieved through well thought-through business practices. Nurturing and advocating ethical business practices would translate into better brand value and encourage people to patronize the service provider and maintain loyalties.
User Trust and Safety
What protects a user’s privacy, does not harm their data because of misuse will make them feel safe, build brand preference and trust. This also strengthens public and investor faith in the company and can impact its financial performance in the long run.
Clutter-Breaking Innovations
Building stronger security features into the product or service will also provide the business an edge over competitors. With heightened sensitivities around data privacy, new products and services which ensure and can deliver well-insulated data protection will stand under the spotlight of clutter-breaking innovations.
While embracing ‘privacy as a feature’, organizations must bear in mind that these features do not eclipse the core functionality of the products or services. Having said that, respecting user privacy comes at a cost to the organization as it may not be able to monetize user data. Organizations that incorporate multiple revenue streams into their business model may be able to incorporate these principle-based practices, which will augment their brand value in the long run.
Regardless of the size of the organization and the user base, data privacy is a risk that all could be potential victims of. To stay ahead of the curve, service providers would have to do things they probably haven’t done before…
Source: Business World
