The rules around protecting the privacy of customer and employee data are becoming one of the most complex business risks (not necessarily highest risk). With no single federal law, organizations face a complicated patchwork of state regulations (like those in California and Virginia), all while new Artificial Intelligence (AI) rules are beginning to overlap and add even more complexity.
This paper cuts through that complexity. It presents a simple, practical framework for a modern privacy program, focusing on the essential “what” must be achieved, not the highly detailed “how.” The goal is a program that is easy to understand, aligned with business strategy, and nimble enough to keep up with the law.
Three Pillars of a Resilient Privacy Program
To ensure continuous compliance, managing risk, and ready to respond, privacy programs can be thought of as built on three essential, functional pillars: Steady State, Change Management, and Response.
I. Steady State: The Foundation of Continuous Compliance
This pillar is about maintaining a clear, current understanding of what data is on hand and what can be donr with it. It focuses on the recurring activities that maintain compliance day-to-day.
| Key Component | What It Does for the Business |
| Inventory of Data and Processes | What personal data is collected, why, and where is it stored. What permissions are attached to it? This is the single most critical piece of information, as it dictates all other requirements (e.g., disposal deadlines, security needs). |
| Inventory of Obligations | A clear view is needed of all applicable regulatory requirements (e.g., state laws) and contractual agreements (e.g., what promises are made to clients or what vendors commit to do). |
| Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) | Vendors and partners are a disproportionate source of privacy risk. A formal process is needed to assess how they handle data, which is often overlooked in favor of standard IT security checks. |
| Risk and Controls | Areas of greatest exposure must be identified and proportionate safeguards in must be put in place. This includes employee training and technical controls to limit who can access sensitive data. |
| Incident Response | A formal plan for responding to privacy breaches or misuse of data is essential. This allows for quick action, remediation of vulnerabilities, and the ability to meet strict regulatory notification deadlines to minimize reputational and financial harm. |
II. Change: Integrating Privacy by Design
This pillar proactively manages new risks that emerge in connection with new products, services, or large projects. It ensures that privacy is a fundamental design element, not a reactive checklist at the end.
| Key Component | What It Does for the Business |
| Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) | This is the mandatory checkpoint for “Privacy by Design.” It’s a formal analysis to determine if a new initiative poses a high risk, ensuring the Privacy team is engaged early in the development cycle, long before launch. |
| Regulatory Change Management | The legal landscape is constantly changing. It suggests a formal process to monitor new laws, determine their impact, and implement necessary control changes before they take effect. |
| Process and Control Changes | A mechanism to engage the privacy team when business or IT process changes impact how personal data is handled. This prevents unauthorized, or “shadow,” changes from introducing new vulnerabilities. |
III. Response to Inquiry: Demonstrated Accountability
This pillar focuses on the auditable evidence and response mechanisms that prove the program is working and demonstrate transparency to both regulators and data subjects (i.e., customers/employees).
| Key Component | What It Does for the Business |
| Data Subject Rights (DSR) Management | People have a legal right to ask us what personal data an organization has have on them and how they’re using it. This drives the need for a streamlined, auditable workflow to intake these requests, verify identities, and fulfill them within strict regulatory deadlines. |
| Regulator Requests | On occasion, a regulator may inquire about a privacy program. Having a clear response plan is necessary to efficiently provide the required evidence and documentation, often leveraging the data from the Inventory and the DSR process. |
| Measurement and Continuous Improvement | Tracking certain operational metrics is key (e.g., number of incidents, time to fulfill DSRs) to monitor the effectiveness of the program and identify areas that require management focus and resource investment. |
Executive Summary
The growing complexity of US privacy law demands a highly organized and resilient compliance framework. To navigate this challenge, we must focus on structure (the three functional pillars), process management, and enabling technology.
By proactively investing in and leveraging specialized privacy technology platforms, management of these intricate requirements can be automated. This approach achieves defensible compliance while keeping operational costs managed, allowing the business to drive forward with reduced risk.
J. Howard, CDO & CPO 