Gartner Survey Shows Accelerating Privacy Regulation Returns as the Top Emerging Risk Worrying Organizations
in 1Q19
Emerging Risks Monitor Report Shows Concern About New Regulations Across Geographic Areas
Concerns about rapidly accelerating privacy regulations and their associated regulatory burdens became the top emerging risk
that organizations face globally, according to Gartner, Inc.’s latest
Emerging Risks Monitor Report.
The quarterly survey of 98 senior executives across industries and geographies showed that “accelerating privacy regulation” had
overtaken “talent
shortages” as the top emerging risk in the
Q1 2019 Emerging Risk Monitor survey (see Figure 1). Concerns around privacy regulations were consistently spread across the
globe, denoting the increasingly numerous and geographically specific regulations that companies must now comply with.
“With the
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) now in effect, executives realize that complying with privacy regulations is more
complex and costly than first anticipated,” said Matt Shinkman, managing vice president and risk practice leader at Gartner. “More
budget dollars from IT, legal and information security are going to address GDPR compliance, just as the
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is set to take effect, adding another layer of complexity for companies to navigate in
this area.”
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Figure 1. Top Five Risks by Overall Risk Score: 2Q18, 3Q18, 4Q18, 1Q19
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Rank |
|
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Q2 2018 |
|
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Q3 2018 |
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|
Q4 2018 |
|
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Q1 2019 |
1 |
|
|
Cloud Computing |
|
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Accelerating Privacy
Regulation
|
|
|
Talent Shortage |
|
|
Accelerating Privacy
Regulation
|
2 |
|
|
Cybersecurity
Disclosure
|
|
|
Cloud Computing |
|
|
Accelerating Privacy
Regulation
|
|
|
Pace of Change |
3 |
|
|
General Data
Protection Regulation
|
|
|
Talent Shortage |
|
|
Pace of Change |
|
|
Talent Shortage |
4 |
|
|
AI/Robotics Skill Gap |
|
|
Cybersecurity
Disclosure
|
|
|
Lagging Digitization |
|
|
Lagging Digitization |
5 |
|
|
Global Economic
Slowdown
|
|
|
AI/Robotics Skill Gap |
|
|
Digitization
Misconceptions
|
|
|
Digitization
Misconceptions
|
Source: Gartner (April 2019)
Sixty-four percent of respondents indicated that accelerating privacy regulation was a key risk facing their organizations. The
data showed a particularly elevated concern among executives from the banking, financial services, technology and
telecommunications, and food, beverage and consumer goods sectors, with at least 70 percent of executives in each sector indicating
it as a top risk.
The CCPA is one of several new global privacy regulations modeled after Europe’s GDPR law, which has been in effect since 2018.
An increasingly fragmented data privacy regulatory landscape, with new privacy laws also recently enacted in Australia and Japan,
have complicated the path to
full privacy compliance for many organizations.
“We are now seeing an evolution from GDPR-specific concerns, which have been on executives’ minds for the past couple of years,
to a broader recognition that their organizations need to overhaul their entire data security governance strategies,” said Mr.
Shinkman. “GDPR compliance is really just the starting gun in this process, and not the finish line.”
Data Shows Magnitude of Privacy Concerns
In addition to being rated the top risk this quarter, accelerating privacy regulation was also rated as a risk with “very rapid
velocity,” meaning that the risk would have high organizational impact if it were to materialize. This may hint at a wariness among
executives of the potentially large fines and reputational damage associated with violations of GDPR and similar legislation.
Accelerating privacy regulation was also rated as the highest-probability risk of any of the top 10 in this quarter’s report,
demonstrating that executives view it as a concrete threat to their organizations.
A number of other emerging risks cited in the survey may also be contributing to executive unease around accelerating privacy
regulation. “Pace of change” was the second overall risk most concerning to executives surveyed. It was also rated as one with
“very rapid velocity,” indicating executives are unnerved by their companies’ inability to avoid disruption and mitigate risk
factors. Concerns about lagging or misconceived digitization were both among the top five risks, while outdated policies and
procedures were flagged as a top 10 risk.
Last quarter’s top risk,
talent shortages, ranked third overall this quarter. This may complicate and add expense to staffing efforts around the
technical challenges inherent to complying with the new regulations, such as the hiring of data protection officers.
For executives concerned about complying with emerging data privacy regulations, Gartner has produced a series of
recommendations for GDPR for the many functions affected, including strategies on developing a data security governance
strategy and guidelines for the appointment of a chief data privacy officer.
More-detailed analysis is available to Gartner clients in the full report and webinar recording
1Q19 Emerging Risks Report and Monitor. Nonclients can complete free registration to read more in
Emerging Risk Trends.
About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT), is the world’s leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. We equip
business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities today and build the
successful organizations of tomorrow.
Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven research steers clients toward the right decisions
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countries — across all major functions, in every industry and enterprise size.
To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of business, visit gartner.com.
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Justin Lavelle
Gartner
Tel +1 571 230 0816
justin.lavelle@gartner.com
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