Developing an effective privacy program is a complex task that involves numerous stakeholders across various teams, including product design, engineering, data science, marketing, sales, customer service, legal, HR, procurement, and finance. To successfully operationalize privacy, it is essential to collaborate cross-functionally and ensure alignment with existing workflows, technical integration with multiple systems, and legal compliance with constantly evolving regulations.
It is recommended to adopt a segmented approach to create a secure and flexible data privacy roadmap. The first phase should involve a comprehensive Privacy Maturity Assessment of all existing internal and external data processing activity practices, policies, people, and technologies to identify non-compliance gaps and high risks. By carrying out a comprehensive privacy maturity assessment, you will create a sound starting point for your compliance journey.
In the second phase, the privacy strategy should address existing gaps while aligning with the future product development roadmap, technology roadmap, and business priorities. Privacy-by-design should be the guiding framework to operationalize the privacy strategy and gain buy-in for the privacy mission and vision.
Clear objectives, metrics, and timelines should be established in the final phase to achieve data privacy goals. Early successful wins should be communicated and evangelized to highlight the benefits of privacy, such as risk reduction, improved customer experience, or better operational efficiencies. Additionally, a training plan should be implemented to create privacy champions across critical functions.
A successful privacy program requires careful planning and implementation to comply with current laws while being agile enough to evolve and scale with changing business needs, industry trends, and customer expectations.