India Among Top Nations leading GDPR Readiness: Cisco
Cisco announced its 2019 Data Privacy Benchmark Study, which placed India amongst the leading nations globally in their preparedness towards the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
According to the report, organizations worldwide that invested in maturing their data privacy practices are now realizing tangible business benefits from these investments. The study validates the link between good privacy practice and business benefits as respondents report shorter sales delays as well as fewer and less costly data breaches.
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which focused on increasing protection for EU residents’ privacy and personal data, became enforceable in May 2018. Organizations worldwide have been working steadily towards getting ready for GDPR. Within Cisco’s 2019 Data Privacy Benchmark Study, 59 percent of organizations reported meeting all or most requirements, 29 percent expect to do so within a year, and 9 percent will take more than a year.
Interestingly, Indian stood sixth globally with 65 percent of Indian organizations showing higher preparedness towards meeting most or all of the GDPR requirements.
“This past year, privacy and data protection importance increased dramatically. Data is the new currency, and as the market shifts, we see organizations realizing real business benefits from their investments in protecting their data,” said Michelle Dennedy, chief privacy officer, Cisco. “At Cisco, we absolutely believe in both protecting our customers and driving business success by maximizing the value of data and minimizing risk.”
Customers are increasingly concerned that the products and services they deploy provide appropriate privacy protections. Those organizations that invested in data privacy to meet GDPR experienced shorter delays due to privacy concerns in selling to existing customers: 3.4 weeks vs. 5.4 weeks for the least GDPR ready organizations. Overall the average sales delay was 3.9 weeks in selling to customers, down from 7.8 weeks reported a year ago.
