Forrester report: About a third of companies say theyâre ready for GDPR but may not be>
MarTech – Barry Levine
A recent report from Forrester Research, based on a survey of 3,195 security decision-makers in companies with more than 20 employees in the US and nine other countries, found that almost 30 percent of respondents think theyâre GDPR-compliant. But, Forrester analyst and report author Enza Iannopollo notes in âThe State of GDPR Readiness: GDPR Readiness Progresses, But Strategies Depend Too Heavily on ITâ [fee required], at least some of those firms have not actually done the work required, such as data discovery, data classification, data flow maps and gap analyses. Instead, she found, many companies appear to simply count on their IT departments to meet specific requirements, such as how to handle data breach notifications. The big takeaway, she added, is âmany companies are overstating their readinessâ for GDPR. The report did not factor in the pending ePrivacy Regulation, since it has not yet been approved. The report also notes that many companies donât believe GDPR applies to them because they do not have offices in Europe. But, as Forrester notes, GDPR applies to them if they collect data on Europeans to build profiles or if they market to Europeans. âThe percentage of companies not affected by GDPR is small,â the report says, without giving a number. One counter-productive circumstance, the report found, is that data protection officers often donât have the control of the budget needed to comply with GDPR. Forrester also found that few firms have embodied âprivacy-by-design,â where data privacy is embedded from the ground up in companiesâ culture, technology, processes and business model.
Link: https://martechtoday.com/forrester-report-third-companies-say-theyre-ready-gdpr-may-not-211312