In today’s digital world, businesses are collecting and processing more data than ever before. However, with great power comes great responsibility. The rise of data breaches and online scams has made it imperative for businesses to safeguard their customers’ sensitive information. Hence, the implementation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has brought new challenges for businesses to stay compliant while protecting their customer’s data privacy. This has led to an increased focus on governance risk management & compliance (GRC). However, some businesses fail to see the bigger picture and separate data privacy from GRC, which can have dire consequences. In this blog post, we’ll explore why businesses should never separate data privacy from GRC.
GRC and Data Privacy Go Hand-in-Hand.
Data privacy is an essential component of GRC. By having integrated implementation of Security, Data Privacy, and GRC, businesses can save costs and ensure that they have a clear picture of their assets. Sadly, many organizations perform risk management in silos or functions, such as financial risk or cyber risk, making it challenging to get a real picture of their exposure. By incorporating data privacy in GRC, businesses can assess their data holding by having an overview of what they have, who owns certain data, where it’s located, and how it’s being used. It also highlights the potential risks associated with the data.
Simplify Compliance Management
Compliance management is one of the biggest challenges for businesses today. It’s an area where data privacy and GRC come hand-in-hand. By deploying an integrated approach, businesses can automate the GRC framework and streamline compliance management. This will save time by reducing the cost of compliance while at the same time mitigating any risks associated with non-compliance.
Protecting Reputational Risk
Data breaches and non-compliance are not only costly but also damage the business reputation. Research shows that customers are increasingly cautious where they will share their data. Combining data privacy with GRC ensures that the business is always compliant while protecting sensitive information. This not only protects the customers but also the company’s reputation.
Improved Communication
The integration of data privacy and GRC also fosters better communication across the different functions within a business. Having a shared platform for risk management and compliance makes for transparency and visibility. This will enable businesses to identify potential issues before they become a problem. As a result, it will improve communication, reduce costs, and prevent compliance-related issues.
Mitigating Cyber Security Risk
Data privacy and GRC don’t just help with regulatory compliance, but they also mitigate cyber risks associated with data breaches. By integrating data privacy with GRC, companies can identify and evaluate risks associated with their applications, systems and network. It will reduce the chances of a data breach and help the company implement security measures to make it more difficult for hackers to access sensitive information.
Businesses should never separate data privacy from governance risk management & compliance (GRC) as it’s essential to ensure regulatory compliance while safeguarding sensitive information of clients. Ignoring data privacy can be costly, leading to non-compliance and reputational risks. A comprehensive risk management solution incorporating data privacy brings transparency and visibility across all the functional areas in a business enabling them to manage their risks better, save costs, and improve communication. Businesses need to think beyond mere regulatory compliance and focus on managing all risks related to data privacy to succeed in the digital world while improving their bottom line.
Are you looking for a holistic GRC solution that keeps your teams working together? Check out Connected Risk to learn more!
