Data protection is, and will remain, a key priority for regulated firms and regulators alike and is an even greater focus in Data Privacy Week. For companies subject to multiple overlapping global privacy regimes, there is a patchwork quilt of regulation and legislation covering the demands of government regulations regarding sensitive data and data protection, such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Unified communication and collaboration (UCC) tools have cemented their place in the fabric of the workplace. The adoption of modern, effective and efficient means of communication has led to many benefits but it has also led to the potential for increasing amounts of personally identifiable information (PII), financial data, and electronic personal health information (ePHI) data to be shared in conversations. Firms must protect, manage, and oversee personal data appropriately no matter what the means used to capture, retain, search, supervise and delete the information. The point is reinforced by the prediction by Gartner that by the end of 2024, 75% of the world’s population will have its personal data covered under modern privacy regulations.
Data protection and privacy involve the relationship between data security, accessibility, the robust use of technology, the public expectation of privacy, together with the associated legal, regulatory and political issues. Given the volumes of all kinds of communications data, organizations will need to deploy appropriate technology to seek to ensure comprehensive data protection compliance. Indeed firms may wish to consider specific privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs).
