It’s Time for Privacy Pros to Make a Strategic Shift

The importance of effective data privacy can no longer be ignored.  

Enhanced security, stronger trust relations with customers, and smoother compliance with regulations are just a few crucial benefits that a sound data privacy system can bring to an organization. Privacy professionals play a central role in this context, shaping strategies, and driving transformational change. 

In the broader business community, there’s a mistaken perception that data privacy is a niche subject—one that consumers don’t truly care about. 

At Osano’s recent Privacy Pro Survival Summit, MJ Patent, CMO at Logically, showed how that view is a fallacy in her keynote address. 

Research backs up MJ’s position. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center concluded that 81% of consumers are concerned about how companies are using their data. So, if awareness around the importance of data privacy is growing across the business community and consumers, what does that mean for privacy pros? 

As Data Privacy Grows, Uncertainty Abounds 

This interest in data privacy both drives and is driven by the growth in comprehensive data privacy regulation. Year over year, legislatures are evaluating and passing more data privacy laws. Consider just the growth of data privacy laws in the US in recent years, as reported by the IAPP.

Blue: Number of bills considered. Green: Number of bills enacted.

Governments are responding to consumer desire for data privacy protections. If businesses want to retain consumer trust, they can’t just say they care about privacy: They need to ensure they’re compliant and provide visible proof that they honor consumer data privacy rights. MJ Patent explains:  

To accomplish this, businesses need to know how to navigate regulation, execute on privacy management, and display their commitment to consumer rights.   

Nobody is better positioned to guide businesses in this endeavor than data privacy professionals.   

The Undeniable Role of Privacy Professionals 

As MJ said above, regulation is accelerating, but ultimately, consumers look to businesses to put the principles behind those regulations into practice. 

Doing the right thing is about more than just compliance—following the letter of the law might help you dodge data privacy fines, but it won’t win consumers’ trust. Privacy is fundamentally about securing that trust. Privacy practices are trust builders, and privacy professionals are the architects and curators of those practices.  

As a strategic priority, data privacy can improve decision-making, drive efficiency, pioneer innovation, enhance customer experience, and manage risk. Here's where you, as a privacy professional, are not just a tactician but a strategic player. You can move beyond being perceived and acting as a siloed gatekeeper and tackle business challenges through data privacy. It just takes a shift in the broader business’s perspective—and maybe even your own. 

How to Become a Strategic Advisor on Data Privacy 

You might be thinking, how do you make this strategic shift and be heard? Two critical steps will make the difference: 

• Align privacy initiatives with the organizational goals. You need to understand the personal and professional goals of your colleagues and demonstrate how data privacy supports these goals. An open dialogue with stakeholders, proactive collaboration, and finding shared solutions are the way forward. 

• Speak up. You MUST communicate the successes and impacts of your privacy efforts internally and externally. Showcasing wins simply helps build trust. 

How to showcase privacy’s value to the business is a broad topic—too broad to cover in a blog post. Osano’s ebook, The ROI of Privacy Management, is the definitive guide for privacy professionals who want to play a more strategic, advisory role in the business. 

In it, you’ll find a suite of data points and arguments proving why data privacy is a strategic investment for businesses; how privacy management drives operational efficiency, marketing effectiveness, customer trust, and more; and the ROI of effective privacy management. 

Modern data privacy is about more than just compliance! As MJ covered in her keynote speech and as the data shows, consumers want businesses to respect their privacy rights. The businesses that can demonstrate that will win big—and privacy professionals are the advisors businesses need to help them navigate this new paradigm.