Why data security matters to your CX efforts

We investigate some of the factors impacting data security and why marketing and customer experience leaders should care

As data moves to assume a central role within business in the digital era, its importance to marketing and customer experience professionals has never been greater. But nor has the need to ensure the security of such data.

Data security requirements are only growing as lawmakers look to increase regulations and consumers themselves expect stronger protections against breaches or use outside of stated purpose. By 2022, half the planet’s population is expected have personal information covered under local privacy regulations similar to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act. It’s a significant jump on the one-tenth today, according to Gartner’s State of Privacy and Personal Data Protection 2019-2020 report.

In line with this, consumers will reward, and punish, organisations they believe do or don’t protect their privacy through strong data security. Not surprisingly then, data security has become one of the top risks most organisations face, Deloitte risk advisory cyber team partner, Daniella Kafouris, tells CMO.

“Data security and data privacy are placed as one of the top 10 risks due to the rise in breaches, regulation and reputational damage ensuing from poor practices around data privacy and security,” Kafouris says.

Oracle experience director APAC, Sharon Seppelt-Don, describes data as the engine that runs all businesses. This has elevated data security in the eyes of the entire enterprise.

“Data security is becoming more of a concern for CMOs due to the shift in how marketers are strategising – they are evolving the way they plan, project, forecast and are using data to support their performance drivers,” she says.  

There’s an important step before making critical data security decisions, and not least, investing significant amounts of money into systems. And that is ensuring you know which data needs protecting and why.

“It begins with data governance,” University of New South Wales chief data and insights officer, planning and performance, Kate Carruthers, says. “This is about working out what data needs protecting and what data doesn’t.

“There has been a lot of focus on improving data practices and marketers have taken cognisance of it. As more organisations realise data is a real asset and needs to be managed as one, it will be taken more seriously.