Kick Start Your Consumer Privacy Program for 2023

5 minute read. Learn the first steps to building or updating your consumer data privacy program in 2023 to be compliant with state privacy laws.

Consumers worldwide are increasingly concerned about how, where, and when their personal data is used, stored, and shared. When it comes to trusting organizations with their personal data, data transparency is a top priority for consumers. They look to the government to pass laws that protect their data. Consumers are increasingly protecting their data by exercising their privacy rights and switching to providers they trust.

In the U.S., three significant privacy laws come into effect in 2023 – the California Privacy Rights Act, the Colorado Privacy Act, and the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act. Additional laws, both in the U.S. and abroad, are expected as governments look to extend protections for individual freedoms. If you need to build or update your privacy program for 2023, now is the time.

Building a Data Privacy Program

An effective data privacy program incorporates policies, procedures, and programs that protect companies and their customers’ and employees’ information. By addressing the requirements, a business can:

• Improve its reputation
• Meet or exceed customer expectations
• Uphold consumer rights
• Protect against data theft
• Deepen the trust of business partners
• Comply with regulations

By understanding the five tenets of privacy protection, businesses can launch and guide programs that increase compliance and decrease risk. These tenets include:

1. The reason for collecting consumer data
2. Notifying consumers and gaining their consent for data collection
3. Defining the need for and use of data
4. Storing and processing the data securely
5. Controlling access to data

By addressing each of these tenets, business leaders can facilitate planning and the evaluation of a company’s strengths and weaknesses regarding privacy. To successfully navigate this evolving landscape, businesses need to prepare. While each company's compliance needs may differ, the steps listed below can help business leaders take a strategic approach to compliance and risk:

1. Expect change - Consider building or adapting a data privacy program that can be extended to include new requirements as laws are introduced or updated.
2. Evaluate and update your privacy program. Develop a checklist to help identify areas within your program that may need to be updated annually, if not more frequently, to meet changing requirements.
3. Adopt an agnostic approach - To simultaneously comply with international and U.S. state privacy laws, develop a program that addresses the strictest requirements of each set of applicable laws.
4. Work across the organization - Identify key stakeholders in IT, HR, legal, and marketing and engage them to understand what consumer data they store, where they store it, and how they share it. By contacting them early, you can assess competing priorities, projects, and deadlines that might affect your data privacy program.
5. Review contracts with service providers - Review and update contract templates so they cover new data privacy regulations from U.S. states or countries. Contact service providers to understand how and when they will be adapting their own terms to meet the law.
6. Create an inventory of IT assets - By creating an inventory of assets in which you store personal data, you can better understand and manage your data privacy risk.
7. Handle data privacy rights requests - Privacy rights are required by GDPR and all of the new U.S state privacy laws. Sometimes an individual wants to obtain their own information that is being stored. Companies have to ensure requesters are who they say they are before sharing data.

Complying with Data Protection Laws

To cost-effectively ensure that you are complying with data privacy laws like GDPR and CPRA, you will have to manage and track consumers’ requests to opt-out, review, access, delete and obtain their data.

Business owners and leaders need a system for tracking consumer requests to opt-out, review, access, delete, and obtain their data. Without an accurate system for tracking the status of each request, business owners risk costly penalties and damage to their reputations.

To strengthen and enhance customer loyalty, PrivacyCare offers a system that features:

1. Customizable data-subject-request (DSR) forms that consumers can use to initiate their data request.
2. Consumer authentication.
3. A flexible record-keeping system that can support any DSR process, helping businesses comply with multi-state data privacy laws.
4. A database of the DSRs and their status.
5. A cost-effective solution that avoids unnecessary upgrades involving data analytics, data management, and data security functions.
6. A SaaS platform that eliminates the need for businesses to purchase and manage hardware or software.
7. Up-to-date with the latest changes to data privacy laws across the U.S.

Get started with PrivacyCare for help with your data privacy compliance.

‍