Regardless of the size of a company, allocation of resources is of the utmost importance. Early-stage startups may not realize the possible consequences of not having a privacy program. This may be because management believes its resources are better allocated elsewhere. It took time, numerous conversations, and education for Irene Koulouris, CIPP/US, to get her team to understand why privacy was so important to the economic success of the company. In an article for The Privacy Advisor, Koulouri... Read More

The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office issued a six-step guide for small businesses that receive data protection complaints. The steps are to acknowledge receipt of the complaint, find out the specific issue related to the complaint, provide updates to the data subject, record actions taken in response to complaint, formally respond to the individual with the outcome of the investigation, and review lessons observed.  Full Story... Read More

A report by Stericycle’s information security service Shred-it found 63% of high-ranking executives and 67% of small U.S. businesses do not have an incident response plan, while 75% of large U.S. businesses have experienced a data breach, Venture Beat reports. Also, one in four North American businesses expressed concerns a data breach is likely in the next 12 months. For consumers, nearly 70% of those surveyed were impacted by a data breach in 2021.Full Story... Read More

Ryan McErlane knows the challenges small- and medium-sized enterprises face on a daily basis, as he is the co-founder of one himself. McErlane heads up Dataships, a privacy technology vendor based out of Ireland that has created a solution specifically geared toward SMEs. While privacy tech vendors have focused on large, multinational organizations, McErlane said SMEs have not received the same level of attention. Now that those companies are starting to catch the eye of regulators, McErlane be... Read More

The Wall Street Journal reports small- and medium-sized businesses are voicing concerns over how Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework will affect business models and competition. Facebook previously spoke out on negative effects for businesses stemming from ATT, and now SMEs are becoming equally skeptical. John Merris, CEO of startup retailer Solo Stove, said he is "not in the camp that privacy doesn’t matter" but does question "where is the right place to draw the line? And why is Apple ... Read More

Axios reports the potential impact of the invalidation of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield agreement may differ depending on business size. While larger companies may be able to rely on the more complex and expensive standard contractual clauses to continue data transfers, small- to medium-sized enterprises may face a tougher road. "As with any compliance concern, it's a matter of capacity for small and medium businesses," said Better Business Bureau National Programs Deputy Director, Privacy Initiati... Read More

Like many of you, we are closely following new developments and working hard to understand the unfolding dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic. To further our understanding of the interplay between COVID-19 and privacy and data protection more narrowly, we are conducting a survey on how companies, in general, and privacy programs, in particular, are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we need your help. If you have five minutes or so, please take this survey to aid in our research efforts arou... Read More