More Data Privacy, More Value

Mature markets with data protection laws in operation or on the anvil offer excellent opportunities for companies to differentiate their products and services through their ability to meet data protection regulations around the world.

- Dr A K Chawla, Author, Pandavas: The Tech Warriors

Forbes reports that Fortune 500 and FTSE 350 companies will spend almost $9 billion to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.1 Look at any conversation about GDPR, and this increased cost of doing business is guaranteed to be a talking point. It reminds me of other regulatory changes, like Basel and SOX. Analysts and consultants work overtime whenever there is a major change on the anvil, with naysayers predicting doom every time.

I believe that data protection is actually a huge opportunity for the IT outsourcing industry. An organisation’s ability to handle GDPR effectively and efficiently can be a solid competitive advantage. In any case, we live in a globalised world; not doing business with the EU is not an option. Costs related to GDPR compliance are not in a company’s control, so why sweat it?

Cost or fear?

Companies that are not prepared for GDPR and other privacy regulations claim to be worried about the cost of compliance. I think they actually fear the cost of non-compliance. In just the past few months, companies all over the world have been fined billions of dollars over data breaches.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) imposed a penalty of $5 billion on Facebook to settle its investigation into the Cambridge Analytica (CA) scandal.2 CA purchased personal information of 87 million Facebook users collected by a third-party app. The firm then used this data to profile and influence voters in the 2016 US presidential campaign. The settlement also affects Facebook’s management structure and handling of user data.