A survey of 471 data protection and privacy officers provides valuable insights into their challenges and priorities for 2020

In 2018, organizations around the world were adjusting to new compliance requirements created by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 2019 saw these various data protection and privacy programs mature but also expand and adapt to prepare for an even broader collection of national data-handling regulations that have either just come online or are expected soon.

CPO Magazine’s Data Protection and Privacy Officer Priorities 2020 report is a comprehensive look at the current challenges DPOs are facing as they adapt their programs to a world in which data privacy is going mainstream. The report surveys 471 privacy specialists working for companies around the world, representing a mix of 16 industries, to provide a broad overview of their 2020 priorities and the strategies being employed to navigate the modern regulatory landscape.

These organizations are also in varying states of maturity in terms of building their data protection and privacy programs. What unique challenges are these companies facing at each stage of maturity? How do their priorities shift as the programs become more sophisticated?

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Some of the challenges that organizations face at these various stages are predictable, but some are surprising. For example, though businesses of all sizes and levels of program maturity are putting a strong emphasis on improving governance around data processing activities, businesses on the lower end of the scale are also still tending to spend much less than is really necessary to achieve these goals. Organizations are also tending to avoid deploying privacy technologies unless they are particularly large and well-funded and have a program that is already in the advanced stages of maturity.

Key highlights:

• 27% named getting budget and available resources as the organization’s No. 1 challenge
• 49% have made governance of data processing and the formation of a privacy-aware culture a top priority
• 20% are making new privacy technology implementation a priority only after privacy programs have matured
• 57% of organizations have an annual budget of no more than $250,000 for data protection and privacy
• 76% of organizations have fewer than 10 employees in roles focused on data protection and privacy

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The 2019 report looked at a world in which companies doing business in Europe had to adapt their budgets, resources and practices. The 2020 report sees organizations preparing for GDPR-like terms throughout the world, balancing compliance costs with ongoing mitigation of a threat landscape that is becoming no less active or dangerous. As always, the report seeks to help organizations set priorities and determine the most effective steps in getting to them. The benchmarks that this report identifies can be invaluable in helping a company evaluate its current status and the measures needed to immediately improve performance and security.

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