In the 21st century of modernisation and digitisation, businesses now hold an enormous amount of data and the personal information of stakeholders. With this comes the most overwhelming responsibilities- storing, sharing, protecting and using the data/information.
With advancements in digitisation, the value of data has increased exponentially. The recent privacy fiasco tainting the image of global giants including Facebook, LinkedIn, Bose Corporation, etc., clearly illustrates the significance of data compliance.
It also demonstrates the consequences faced by firms, including severe reputational damage and substantial financial penalty for non-compliance.
What Is Data Compliance?
Data compliance is defined as a set of regulations that a business or a company needs to follow to ensure the sensitive data (mainly personally identifiable information and financial details) it collects – are protected from loss, misuse and theft.
Below are the most common regulatory data compliance standards that cover major industries-
- European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
- Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX)
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
DevSecOps solutions ties development, security, and operation processes together to reduce the chances of compliance violation.
How Data Compliance Solutions Can Help Your Organisation?
Data compliance solutions help enterprises to meet the compliance standards stated by any of the relevant regulatory authorities. They enable you to streamline your business data management onto a centralised software-defined platform to stay ahead of stringent regulatory standards for the handling of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
Benefits Of Data Compliance Solutions
Protects The Reputation Of Your Business
If your company is dealing with customers, you will likely handle sensitive data like personal information, address, debit and credit card details. While strictly adhering to the data compliance standards, you can safe-keep your reputation in the business world.
Data breach due to non-compliance will result in loss of reputation and lead to loss of future investors, financial loss, and legal penalty.
Protects Your Company From Security Breaches
With sophisticated technologies, the nature of malicious cyberattacks is becoming complex and advanced. Therefore it is vital to guarantee that your data security measures are equally robust and scalable to counterfeit any attack. Following data compliance standards helps you to mitigate the risk of security breaches.
Grow Your Brand
Customers are becoming more tech-savvy and smart. When a security breach occurs, customers are also at the losing end. Therefore online users are now extremely cautious about trusting companies. When you collect sensitive information, they’ll demand clarification about the handling and processing of data.
When you adhere to data compliance standards, you project yourself as a trustworthy business, and your customer base grows.
Supports Innovative Thinking Within Your Organisations
Data compliance solutions and innovative thinking don’t seem to complement each other. However, you’ll be surprised to notice how complying with various data security standards can bring innovation within your company.
With data compliance solutions, you’ll have complete transparency over who possesses what data and the data processes within your organisation. All the functions are automated and centralised. This reduces manual work and saves time. Therefore your team will have more valuable time which they can dedicate to research and innovative thinking.
Also Read: 5 Practical Tips For Ensuring Data Compliance
3 Best Practices For Data Compliance
Prepare for Audits in Advanced
With new regulations in place, surprise visits by the audit committee are becoming more frequent.
The auditing process requires significant time and resources. This may lead to hindrance in your daily organisational workflow and render long-term consequences to your business.
Therefore, an audit preparation policy is essential. It keeps all the data and records organised for surprise visits. Additionally, it helps you identify any blind spots or pain points and avoid oversights leading to data compliance violations.
Establish A Process To Respond To Data Request By Clients
You need to stay updated for granting customers enhanced access to their own data, a crucial component of GDPR. It allows your clients to view what exact data you have collected about them.
As the data controller, your organisation should respond within a month after the request submission. Establishing a standardised process for accessing data, handling and responding to requests within the given timeframe.
Implement Automation For Preventing Human Error
Doing everything manually can complication your data compliance process and make it even more challenging. Data compliance solutions involve implementing automation to prevent compliance violation.
Using automation for governance solutions and data management helps streamline email retention, ensure compliance and retrieve data easily when required.
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