Now, the savvy consumer monitors whether their Facebook profile is public or private, checks their credit card statement monthly, freezes their credit score, and uses a different password for their Amazon.com account than their bank account – all a sign that the common user is becoming more intelligent as a result of an increased awareness that their data is out there, their data is being stored, and their favorite merchant may not be paying close attention to whose hands that information is being passed off. This new-found awareness that data subjects have rights whether they pay for a service or not has put the global economy into a privacy recession. For the first time, companies are now scrambling to capture consent at every crossroad and keep pace through privacy policy updates in an effort to anticipate the next law restricting the use of consumer data. The extent of this market shift will continue to grow until the stakes for an organization, and their impact on consumers, are fully realized.

While 89% of consumers say data privacy is important, more than half (55%) are unaware of any data privacy regulation, according to a new study by Integral Ad Science (IAS), the global leader in digital ad verification. In the past two decades, the ability to collect consumer data online has revolutionized the field of digital advertising, but new privacy regulations in the US and worldwide have begun to restrict certain targeting strategies. To find out more, IAS surveyed 1,093 US consumers on their perceptions of targeted digital advertising practices and data collection.

A majority of consumers say they are taking responsibility for securing their data; 53% of consumers hold themselves most accountable for keeping their personal information secure, with only 36% holding websites and apps most responsible, and just 10% holding the government most accountable. More than half of consumers have taken action to help limit data collection when they are online, such as clearing their browser history or using a private or "incognito" window. Just 39% responded that they have used an ad-blocker while browsing online.

What capabilities should you search for?
A good Policy Management software solution will, first of all, provide multiple and up-to-date supporting document templates to allow your staff to create what’s required for a data privacy program. 

Employee understanding of policies and procedures is essential, but information overload can be a major roadblock to employee adoption of compliant behaviors. One way to ensure your employees get the information they need to remain compliant is to target the right segments of your workforce with only the information that’s appropriate to each of them, in the right language.

Your ability to assess and optimize your compliance program should be streamlined, too; the right solution should allow you to track attestations within your program, and make any changes required to improve compliance.

Furthermore, having the ability to automate reporting to enable early risk assessments and responses will reduce the number and cost of regulatory non-compliance incidents.

Ease of use is practically paramount, so both administrators and employees alike are able to work with the solution with minimal (or even no) training. This is important because most employees have difficulty with data privacy and cybersecurity issues; 75% of respondents in one survey struggled to understand any best practices in these areas, marking them at the “novice” or “risk” level.