The only way left with businesses and organisations is by complying with the respective data protection laws governing that State/Province/Country. Since these laws are new and evolving, which makes it more burdensome for organisations and businesses to be fully aware of the changes and amendments all the time, that is why appointing a data protection officer in every organisation and business is a good approach and also is mandated by the law. But will this solve the problem? Not really. Data protection is not just the responsibility of the data protection officer. Instead, it should run inside every department, and every employee must be a part of this process.

1. Awareness about digital privacy- The first step to instilling a privacy culture and contributing to the privacy ecosystem of the organisation should be taken by the organisation’s management. They will have to take the first call to introduce the concept of digital privacy and make this concept familiar to the entire organisation through various seminars, conferences, team meetings, campaigns, and conducting many other social events. Nowadays, every organisation consumes their customers’ data and even their employees; hence, it is essential to have a robust privacy ecosystem. This can only be achieved by educating and awarding the entire organisation about the issues about the same. Data privacy is not just the management or the IT department’s responsibility; instead, it is a collective work.   


2. Understanding the law- The second stage would be more complex here. The management level members and all the employees from different departments would be taught about the governing laws regarding data protection & privacy. This stage is more like an extended version of the first stage, as just awarding the entire organisation about data privacy wouldn’t help much. But by teaching them what each data protection law mandates, the technicalities, and the compliance requirements and issues about the same. If each employee is equipped with this basic set of skills and understanding, the organisation will soon be privacy ready along with a robust privacy ecosystem.


3. Training the employees and Complying with industry standards- – This is another way of promoting a privacy culture inside your organisation through training. Training your employees with the relevant skillset is a practice especially followed in the privacy space today. Moreover, hiring employees with such a skill-set is the new trend; it doesn’t matter for which position you are applying for, having an additional skill set in privacy is an add-on. There are a few certifications that are recognised as industry standards, and the same is treated as essential standards of practice in multiple industries today. ISO standards are among them, along with IAPP’s certifications such as CIPP, CIPT, CIPM, etc., are some trending certificates that are seen as relevant in this domain, and people with such certifications have the edge over others.


4. Investing and developing your security programs and practices- It is pretty evident that if the organisations have a privacy security program, then the same must be utilised as such a security program would help the organisation to keep track of all the data that was generated, shared, used, along with the relevant timelines, the purpose of such data, retention period, etc. Recording such details about the data in an organisation is considered an essential practice, and for such practices to be followed requires investment. Hence, investing in security programs would promote the privacy culture and make the organisation’s privacy ecosystem much stronger.   


5. Choose vendors and other third parties wisely- Another important aspect that an organisation shouldn’t neglect is to choose vendors and other third parties with whom the organisation will share the data, either of their customers or employees; the same must be recorded, and such transactions should be governed by contracts with clauses stating obligations upon such vendors and third parties in the event of a data breach or on any other potential dispute occurring out of either a breach of any of the clauses partially or wholly.