Making the appropriate option is important when choosing a data privacy automation software for your company. You probably haven’t bought software for this reason before, given how quickly the data privacy sector has expanded.

The demand for increased data responsibility has arisen as a result of the IoT, VR, and AI’s rapid growth. Better privacy policies and data security are becoming more necessary as legislation fast catch up to these new technologies.

To keep up with the rate of data collection, processing, and requests, it is necessary to invest in robust technology and resources in order to build a privacy program that minimizes risk to the data subject and your company.

How Do You Know if a Privacy Automation Software Will Meet Your Needs?

Understanding your company’s needs for data privacy is necessary before choosing the best privacy software.

For instance, does your business have to abide by any local, national, international, or sector-specific regulations? What categories of data do you gather, process, or share, and what are the risks involved?

There are more threats to personal information in some industries than others. especially those organizations and services that use the collection of financial, health, or other personal information to carry out their business.

36% of businesses begin developing a privacy program with spreadsheets and shared documents, or an open-source solution. For the privacy team, scaling these solutions typically leads to suffering, mistakes, and inconsistent behavior.

Companies now begin seeking for some kind of privacy automation software solution. Check out these privacy automation software selection dos and don’ts before you choose, though.

What to Do When Selecting Privacy Automation Software

Do Get the Right People Involved

The general counsel, the chief privacy officer, and the chief information security officer are not solely responsible for maintaining privacy. If your business gathers data about individuals, everyone’s job will involve protecting privacy. In fact, in the data-driven world of today, heads of marketing, strategy, and data science frequently play a significant role in choosing privacy technology solutions.

There are two internal activities that you should prioritize before looking at privacy tech solutions.

• Make a thorough description of all the business functions and the details of any usage, processing, sharing, or collection requirements.
• List all of the business procedures that the possible privacy technology will need to support in order to meet all of the criteria you stated in the first job.
  • To better understand how data moves into and out of your company, you should at this point, if you haven’t previously, construct a high level data map. However, this feature is available in some privacy technology solutions

Understanding the specific requirements and business processes is essential if you want a privacy automation software that will scale with your company. Depending on the nature of your organization, where it’s located, and who your customers and partners are, the people and functions involved in the decision can vary greatly.

Some roles and functions to consider include:

• Information Technology
• Cybersecurity
• Legal Counsel
• Marketing, Communications, and Public Relations
• Information Governance and Risk Management
• Business Strategy, Operations, and Data Intelligence
• Sales and Customer Service
• Human Resources

These functional domains frequently make extensive use of data to guide strategy, inform choices, and execute crucial day-to-day company operations including marketing, sales, and customer support. Find the organization’s stakeholders who have an interest in protecting customer data, and involve them early in the privacy technology selection process.

Do Ensure the Laws and Regulations You Need are Included in the Software

A complicated web of regional and international rules now governs data privacy. When industry is included in the equation, complexity rises. The potential for new rules is infinite when you take into account the rapidly developing technologies like IoT and AI.

Ask which regulations are incorporated and how frequently new regulations are added when evaluating privacy automation software. Some privacy technology solutions might be more suited to particular industries or geographical areas with regard to privacy laws.

Analyze your company plan. Which areas are you going to grow into? Industries? Will the suggested remedy address this? Will it instantly recognize the privacy regulations and standards that relate to your business?

The landscape of privacy laws around the world is far from static. Additionally, you must determine whether your current processes are sufficient to completely comply with new rules in addition to keeping up with the regulations. The top privacy automation tools will perceptively identify inconsistencies between your present privacy program and legal requirements.

Knowing the laws you must abide by and how they change is increasingly vital the more consumers you intend to serve. Otherwise, breaking privacy regulations could result in fines of millions of dollars for your business.

The system you choose should have a solid path for privacy regulation, at the very least. You shouldn’t skimp on your due diligence in this area because there are hundreds of privacy laws in place all over the world.

The complexity of each rule goes beyond just the quantity of regulations. For instance, certain legislation mandate privacy assessments (and, consequently, data inventories).

Excellent privacy automation software goes beyond legal requirements to incorporate privacy program necessities. Inquire about the use of templates, automatic data inventory generation for assessments, GDPR Article 30 reporting capabilities, data subject rights management, and online compliance audits from potential solution vendors.

Basically, you’ll need a tool to plan and organize every aspect of your privacy program in one location.

Do Know Which Integrations You Require

Because data has such enormous value when properly utilized, it has become essential to company operations. Contrary to what many people think, data protection does not restrict the potential value of data. It boosts it.

A ticking time bomb for your company is buying, sharing, processing, or using data that doesn’t adhere to privacy standards. You may incur penalties, lose clients and trust, and even move in the incorrect strategic path as a result. To get that data into a useful state will at the very least require a lot of work.

Data obtained in accordance with privacy laws is far more valuable than data obtained in contravention of privacy laws. Building trust with stakeholders through the transparent use and acquisition of data yields insightful data that can be trusted.

Finding privacy software that can integrate with popular technologies like Application Programming Interface (API), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs, Tag Management Systems, and other Marketing, Website, or Customer Success tools you currently use is important if you want to get the most value out of your data.

Include outlining desired integrations that will be needed across from all stakeholders in your privacy automation software selection process.

Do Select a Software that Can Grow with Your Business

You have huge goals for your business, and privacy won’t disappear. You need software that can grow with your business and stay up with evolving technology and privacy standards.

Finding the right privacy automation software the first time can help you save big. Mainly because of switching costs. Getting a privacy program up and running takes time and effort. Employees need to learn how to use the software and get your information uploaded into the system.

Make sure to learn about each privacy product’s whole feature set as you compare them, not just the ones you now require.

Others may cover all aspects of information governance, data inventory and mapping, consent and preference management, data subject access requests, and even security needs. Some privacy programs are designed only for a single purpose.

However, don’t be oversold. If you don’t need every add-on a company is offering today, don’t be forced to buy more than you need.

What Not to Do When Selecting Privacy Automation Software

Don’t Assume Automation Will Do Everything

There are still misunderstandings about what artificial intelligence and machine learning can do as they gain popularity. Even the best privacy automation software requires adequate setup in order to function “automatically” with data inventory privacy software.

To upload your privacy rules and procedures into the software, prepare to put in some front-end work. Additionally, you’ll probably need to import current data inventories, vendors, and records into the system.

One way that vendors can stand apart is in the level of service they provide to help you get started. Ask about the materials and support available to help integrate your existing processes and migrate data into the application.

Will there be any additional fees for onboarding, training, and implementation of the solution you select? Is there 24 hour support?

These are just a few questions you should consider. In general, its most helpful to have a clear understanding of what automation does before you assume it has magic powers.

Don’t Be Fooled by Introductory Pricing/Offers that Quickly Increase in the Years to Come

Recall the switching expenses from earlier? Some businesses could drastically raise your rates in the following years after providing low or almost free introductory price, thereby bringing those costs to a whole new level.

Pay great attention to any agreements you make with contracts and rates, and inquire about additional fees. Transparency is highly valued in the privacy sector, and your providers should exhibit this value as well. If not, consider that to be a warning.

Don’t Select a Privacy Automation Software for Another Purpose

It may make sense or even be more cost-effective for your company to choose software that serves two purposes or was created for a purpose other than maintaining a privacy program. However, research demonstrates that your choice of privacy software is important.

The TrustArc 2022 Global Privacy Index gave the highest ratings to organizations who used privacy management software among other options. Software for governance, risk, and compliance (GRC), spreadsheets, emails, in-house systems, and open-source or free privacy software were all ineffective solutions.

Choose an approved privacy automation software solution if your business is committed to increasing consumer trust, avoiding fines and penalties, and developing a compliance privacy program.

Don’t Buy a Solution that Doesn’t Help You Extract Value from Your Data

Organizations currently gather a wide variety of data. Other data can be used for a variety of purposes, while some of it may be a special class of sensitive or personal data.

When looking for the best privacy automation software, seek for a vendor who makes it possible for you to use data to reach your business goals. Determine the company’s goals for using data by using the list of business processes you have compiled.

At a minimum you need a solution that will have full data inventory, mapping, and management capabilities. This includes everything from your data lifecycles to building data inventory records for DPIAs, and the ability to configure information collected about each type of data.

Additionally, you should pay close attention to data compliance issues like sensitivity and location as well as the capacity to alert high-risk operations.

Consent and Data Subject Requests (DSRs) Management are Crucial Capabilities

Transparent communication between your company and its customers is the cornerstone of a successful data privacy program. You require their permission or approval in order to use their information. Additionally, DSRs should make it simple for consumers to modify or revoke their consent.

A platform for managing consent and preferences as well as handling those data subject requests in a timely manner are all parts of a full privacy software solution. Find a solution that can automatically allocate tasks for handling DSRs, workflows, and access levels in addition to ensuring privacy legislation compliance.

Global laws and regulations heavily influence how consent and preferences are to be managed. This often has a major influence on how marketing, sales, and communications teams connect with their audience.

You need a solution that can automate privacy law compliance and help you manage your data in a profitable way. Be wary of solutions that focus on only one aspect of the data lifecycle. While they may be specialized, they may not help you achieve your business goals.

Take the Next Step to Automated Privacy Program Management

Whether you are looking for a certification or need to build a robust privacy program including assessments, customer consent and preference management, regulatory compliance, and data management, TrustArc provides the right solution to match your needs.

Contact us now for further consultation:

• Phone:+84 8 229 888 34 / +84 39 704 6166
• Email:[email protected]