Organizations turning to software to protect data privacy

The use of data privacy management technology is on the rise, as a variety of security professionals try to bulk up defenses against hacking.

Among the 328 privacy professionals worldwide who were recently polled on the topic, 33 percent have deployed privacy program assessment and management software, while another 32 percent either plan to purchase the technology or have already purchased but have yet to implement the software.

Another 24 percent have purchased data mapping and flow technologies, while 21 percent have purchased personal data discovery tools, according to the study by TrustArc, a data privacy management company, and the International Association of Privacy Professionals, a global information privacy community. These two technologies also data privacy tools that organizations are most likely to implement in the future.

“Although security budgets remain larger, we’re seeing a marked shift in privacy teams’ influence over technology purchasing decisions,” says Chris Babel, CEO of TrustArc. “This trend confirms what we’re seeing among our customers; that they have a growing need for technology solutions to help them manage privacy compliance on a global basis.”

While IT and information security control the budgets for a number of privacy-related technologies, privacy professionals have influence and provide significant input on technology decisions.

With regard to incident response software, for example, 69 percent of the respondents say they had more say in the decision-making than their fellow IT professionals, even though only 28 percent of the privacy teams actually had any budget authority.