SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --
News Summary:
- Global study finds significant privacy concerns stemming from
the pandemic, fueled by rapid shift to remote work and the need to
utilize health information of individuals.
- Privacy legislation worldwide has been well received, with
nearly 80% of security and privacy professionals seeing positive
impact on their organizations.
- Strong privacy infrastructure and robust security practices are
essential for post-pandemic social and economic recovery.
Cisco today published the 2021 Data Privacy Benchmark
Study, its fourth annual look into corporate privacy practices
worldwide, which found enhanced importance of privacy protections
during the pandemic and increasing benefits for businesses that
adopt strong privacy measures. The independent, anonymized survey
analyzed the responses of 4,400 security and privacy professionals
across 25 countries and explored attitudes towards privacy
legislation and the emergence of privacy metrics being reported to
executive management.
At a time of disruption and uncertainty due to the pandemic,
people have been suddenly expected, and at times required, to share
their personal information to help curtail the spread of COVID19.
At the same time, people have shifted much of their lives online,
accelerating a trend that normally would have taken years. These
mass-scale shifts in human interaction and digital engagement
presented many challenging data privacy issues for organizations
who aim to follow the law, stop the spread of the pandemic, while
also respecting individual rights. Consumers and the general public
are growing increasingly concerned about how their personal data is
being used.
Other key findings from the report include:
- Privacy is much more than just a compliance issue as
businesses now see it as a fundamental human right and a
mission-critical C-suite priority.
-
- 60% of organizations say they weren't prepared for privacy and
security requirements involved in the shift to remote work
- 93% of organizations turned to their privacy teams to help
navigate these challenges
- 87% of consumers expressed concerns about the privacy
protections of the tools they needed to use to work, interact and
connect remotely
- 90% of organizations now reporting privacy metrics to their
C-suites and boards
- There is a clear shift in the market
towards standardizing privacy as a
non-negotiable requirement when digitizing and advancing
business objectives.
-
- More than 140 jurisdictions have now passed omnibus privacy
laws, and nearly 80% of respondents found these laws to have a
positive impact
- Most people are fine with sharing health information for
workplace safety and pandemic response, but are uncomfortable with
other uses such as research.
-
- 57% supported employers using data to help make
workplaces safe, while less than half supported location
tracking, contact tracing, disclosing information about infected
individuals, and using individual information for
research
- Privacy and the larger
cybersecurity ecosystem will play a key role in the road
to economic growth and COVID-19 pandemic recovery.
-
- As economies and communities begin to recover, many important
challenges will arise that will test how governments, companies,
and individuals collect, manage and protect personal data while
balancing individual rights with public interest
- Privacy investment continues to be attractive, with 75% of
organizations seeing significant business value in terms of
mitigating security losses, enhanced agility and innovation,
improved operational efficiency, and improved customer loyalty and
trust
-
- Over one-third of organizations are getting benefits at least
twice their investment
"Privacy has come of age – recognized as a fundamental human
right and rising to a mission-critical priority for executive
management," noted Cisco Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer,
Harvey Jang. "And with the
accelerated move to work from anywhere, privacy has taken on
greater importance in driving digitization, corporate resiliency,
agility, and innovation."
Additional Resources:
- Privacy Comes of Age During the Pandemic
- Cisco Trust Center
- Cisco Security Report Series
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in technology that
powers the Internet. Cisco inspires new possibilities by
reimagining your applications, securing your data, transforming
your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a global and
inclusive future. Discover more on The Network and follow us
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Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A
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at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks
mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of
the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between
Cisco and any other company.
Press Contact:
Saro Khatchadourian
skhatcha@cisco.com
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SOURCE Cisco Systems, Inc.