As consumer data privacy emerges as a major issue, new regulations are coming into effect worldwide to ensure the consumer is protected. Businesses are expected to comply with these regulations, and failure to do so can lead to hefty penalties. For example, Meta was recently fined $18.6 million under GDPR for failing to protect user data. A company’s ability to know what data it controls and how it is being used is critical to staying compliant and fulfilling the requirements of a regulation. But how are businesses doing when it comes to knowing how and why they use customer or employee data?
Transcend recently conducted a study on the state of data inventory efforts by technical leaders to understand the challenges and opportunities for improvement. A significant finding was that data system sprawl, reliance on manual processes, and insufficient resources throttled data visibility.
See more: Facebook Has No Idea How User Data Is Used or Processed, Leaked Doc Reveals
Companies Face Challenges in Identifying and Organizing Data
The study found that system sprawl, reliance on manual processes, and insufficient resources made it difficult to identify and organize company data effectively. All companies employ several connected platforms, such as HubSpot, Jira, Google Workspace, and Asana, to collect, store and manage data. In fact, mid-size companies were using an average of 288 SaaS apps to perform these tasks in 2020. This vast number of data systems creates a problem for companies when they plan to create a unified view of all data under their purview.Â
The challenge only escalates when this is combined with the rate at which data systems are added and implemented. About 57% of the respondents said that new systems containing user data are added weekly and sometimes daily within their firms.
Companies also face another challenge. A majority of businesses rely on manual processes, such as cross-functional conversations, surveys, and approaches that cannot scale without leaving gaps in visibility when identifying new systems. Automated data mapping approaches, such as automatic discovery, can save time and increase accuracy when maintaining a data map. But, many companies are yet to take advantage of it. According to the study, only 22% of companies have implemented automated data mapping approaches.
Seen through this lens, it makes sense that many companies struggle to create and maintain an accurate data map. However, that is not the whole story. Insufficiency in terms of support from the leadership, budgets, and time also were significant roadblocks for many of the companies. About 62% of respondents cited a lack of leadership support as the primary reason for being unable to create a data map.Â
Roadblocks for creating data maps
Source: The 2022 State of Data Visibility ReportOpens a new window
That said, automating an organization’s data mapping process may carry more value than getting support from the leadership or additional budgets.
Given the criticality of data visibility to compliance, it is unclear why it has not received more support at the executive level. What is clear is that companies face significant challenges in data mapping, leading to poor visibility of data they control.
Companies Struggle To Create Comprehensive Up-to-Date Data Inventory
Another significant finding is that organizations are struggling to create a comprehensive, up-to-date data inventory, creating downstream effects on privacy compliance activities. As the amount of data that needs to be managed increases, about 66% of respondents said their companies did not have a unified inventory of the user data they collected.
While about 29% of respondents are currently creating their data inventory, the majority still need to complete the task. Further, many companies have not started at all. For companies working toward a unified view of data, the outlook is still not ideal — most reported processes that were slow and resource-intensive. Over 50% of firms need more than a year, several internal teams and external vendors to discover the data systems and create a unified map.
But why is it necessary to create a complete data inventory in a reasonable time frame? This is because data visibility is essential for compliance, a space where regulations and enforcement are quickly evolving in favor of greater consumer control. The inability to understand where the data lies and how it is used creates a negative ripple effect throughout the compliance process.Â
For example, fulfilling a DSAR within the given time frame requires that when a request comes, the company should know where to find the data. Without an up-to-date data inventory, companies cannot give a user access to their personal data, leaving the company vulnerable to hefty penalties.
See more: 90% of U.S. Companies Ill-Prepared to Comply With CCPA Requirements
In Summary
Despite the criticality of data mapping and visibility in staying compliant with data privacy laws, many businesses are still struggling to understand what data they control and how it is being used. And this is primarily due to reliance on manual processes, system sprawl, and insufficient resources. This can have severe consequences for other activities downstream. Hence, senior executives should prioritize data visibility and provide the necessary support and resources, as well as implement automated data mapping approaches to create a unified view of their data to respect consumers’ privacy and comply with regulations.
What steps have you taken to gain complete visibility of the data you control? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .Â
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