Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton Andrews Kurth Issues Report on Accountability in Data Privacy

To help businesses build effective privacy compliance programs that also enable responsible uses of data, the Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton Andrews Kurth has issued a report on how leading companies have implemented robust privacy programs and accountability controls.

The report is the culmination of CIPL’s Accountability Mapping Project, launched in September 2019. It is based on interviews with numerous organizations with mature privacy programs and an analysis of their specific accountability practices. It provides examples of how organizations in different sectors and geographies, and of various sizes, implement effective data privacy management programs and how these programs map to the CIPL Accountability Framework, which was previously outlined here.

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of implementing organizational accountability through data privacy and governance programs. This enables businesses and government agencies to effectively leverage personal data and modern technologies to address public health emergencies without undermining the privacy of individuals. With the acceleration of data-driven innovation and the digital transformation of society in the post-COVID world, corporate boards and senior leaders will be addressing data privacy as a business and trust imperative. This report provides practical examples of how leading organizations implement data privacy accountability measures and embed accountability into their organizational ethos.

“The findings of our report demonstrate that we are squarely moving into the era of data privacy accountability. Enlightened senior leaders in businesses and public bodies see accountability as a board-level business and data strategy issue, and a prerequisite for public trust and sustainable data uses,” CIPL President Bojana Bellamy said. “This report shows that accountability is scalable to both big and small organizations. It illustrates best-in-class practices and success stories to support the effectiveness of an accountability framework in promoting responsible data practices.”

CIPL has worked extensively on privacy accountability and has been advocating for the implementation of accountability principles by organizations around the world. Accountability is also being championed by visionary senior leaders and chief privacy officers in the world’s leading companies and has been encouraged by many forward-thinking data privacy regulators and lawmakers in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Additionally, many jurisdictions such as the European Union, Brazil, Singapore, India and Canada have incorporated, or are in the process of incorporating, accountability into their data protection laws.