The only constant in privacy is that it’s constantly changing. Countries enacting their first data protection laws; others finally starting to enforce laws that have been on the books for years. New regulations and guidance in established privacy regimes. New technology and business opportunities driven by data. Tension between commercial imperatives and data protection concerns; tension between other regulations and privacy. And constantly evolving consumer and employee attitudes and concerns.

All of this means that compliance is a journey, not a destination. Privacy teams have to be continuously learning, adapting, prioritising, innovating. Which is what makes working in privacy fun, but also what makes it so demanding. We also need to remember that privacy is about protecting data subjects, not pleasing regulators – it can be so easy to find ourselves looking the wrong way: ticking boxes and filling in forms when we should be engaging with the business to shape its use of data and help it reconcile business goals with rights and freedoms.

How can you tell if you’re doing the right things? How can you be sure that you’ve identified the key risks – and the key opportunities? What are the competition doing – are they using privacy as a competitive advantage and doing a better job than you of winning the trust of their customers and employees? Has something changed in one territory of the dozens or hundreds where you operate that affects your privacy landscape? And how can you check all of this and still have time to do your day-to-day work?

Fortunately help is at hand. Securys is a specialist privacy consultancy. We’re big enough and global enough to deal with the world’s largest and most complex firms, but small and focused enough that you get experienced and qualified consultants throughout our projects, not just in the pitch meeting. We’re relentlessly practical: many of our consultants are legally-qualified but their advice is straightforward, business-led and pragmatic. We won’t tell you to do the impossible and then run away; we’ll follow through and implement our recommendations working hand-in-hand with your team.

We’re the innovators behind Privacy Made Positive – both an ongoing research study that shows the commercial value of privacy, and a constantly-evolving set of tools that help you assess your competitive position and leverage your commitment to protecting your customers and employees to boost sales, retention and recruitment.

Get in touch to find out how we can work together to transform your privacy function and deliver measurable benefits to your data subjects and your bottom line. Please email us at info@securys.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you.

Additional resources

If you have a privacy function and would be interested in validating what you are doing, you can read more about our audit process by clicking here.