Cisco’s 2023 Data Privacy Benchmark Study surveyed more than 3,100 security professionals in 26 countries worldwide.

The study revealed that organizations have ramped up their investment in privacy. The average spend is now $2.7m compared with $1.2m three years ago.

In all countries surveyed, there was overwhelming support for privacy laws, with respondents saying they had a positive impact, while 95% of businesses named privacy as a business imperative.

These four key findings emerged:

• Privacy continues to be an attractive investment for organizations globally, even in a difficult economic climate, delivering higher average benefits across the board, and a strong 1.8 times return on investment.
• Nearly all organizations have integrated privacy into their priorities and processes, with 98% of respondents reporting privacy related metrics to their Board of Directors and 95% saying “all of their employees” need to know how to protect data privacy.
• Organizations are not fully in sync with consumers when it comes to building trust — especially in the use of their personal data for AI and automated decision-making.
• Organizations are recognizing that global providers, operating at scale, can better protect their data compared to local providers.

“When it comes to earning and building trust, compliance is not enough,” said Harvey Jang, Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer, Cisco. “Transparency was the top priority for consumers (39%) to trust companies, whilst organizations surveyed felt compliance was the number one priority for building customer trust (30%).”

Some 88% of those responding said they believed data would be “inherently safer” if it could be stored within the country or region where they are operating. Despite that, 93% in the UK and 84% in the US believe global providers can protect data better than local ones.

AI concerns

There was found to be a disconnect between data privacy measures by companies and what consumers expect from organizations, especially with regards to how they apply and use Artificial Intelligence (AI). The survey revealed 92% of organizations think they should be doing more to reassure customers their data is only being used for legitimate purposes, but at the same time 96% believe they have processes in place to meet the responsible and ethical standards that customers expect for AI-based solutions and services. And 63% claim to ensure a human is involved in processes to make consumers more comfortable with AI.

But 60% of consumers are concerned about how organizations apply and use AI today, and 65% have already lost trust in organizations over their AI practices. Consumers also said the way to make them more comfortable would be to provide opportunities for them to opt out of AI-based solutions.