There’s a growing awareness of the importance of data privacy in the United States. In fact, 90% of Americans are concerned about how their data is collected and used; this, in turn, has spurred changes to compliance regulations across the country, impacting business of all sizes and industries.
As we look to the new year, the American Privacy Rights Act of 2024 may gain footing as a standardized approach to data privacy. Regardless of whether the federal act is passed, at the state level more and more data privacy laws are being enacted and expanded. A number of new provisions have created some hand-wringing among businesses that have delayed introducing robust compliance protocols due to confusion, lack of resources, and their own difficult-to-navigate systems.
Yet, the potential impacts of not updating data compliance to match 2025’s more demanding requirements are grave—from reputational damage and operational downtime to costly penalties and friction in delivery. By identifying common pitfalls in compliance, businesses can proactively meet challenges and welcome 2025 with confidence.
Here’s our top five pitfalls and thoughts on how to overcome them to create sustainable compliance in the new year and beyond.
Pitfall #1: Reactive—instead of proactive—data management
Too many businesses adapt their compliance measures only when mandated by new regulations. Yet, there is much to be gained by more proactively managing data. By staying ahead of regulations and adopting robust compliance measures early, companies avoid disruptive sudden adjustments. This anticipation creates secure systems that work effectively for the business’s unique operations and people, while simultaneously minimizing security risks, which are growing. In 2024, for example, cloud intrusions increased by 75%.
While the future is unwritten, one thing is certain: More legislation will be passed for data security and compliance. And businesses that proactively demonstrate their commitment to data compliance earn the trust of customers and partners alike while ensuring compliance in the future.
Pitfall #2: Time-consuming and cumbersome documentation process
Creating and maintaining accurate documentation requires tracking numerous details about data collection, storage, access controls, and processing practices. Although software
usage for risk tracking, risk management, and IT compliance management is on the rise, the use of spreadsheets to manage IT compliance has increased by 40% year-over-year.
Additionally, compliance documentation can demand coordination across multiple departments. If data management isn’t standardized, documentation can become even more challenging. This labor-intense and complex task adds stress to data compliance.
To mitigate these burdensome aspects of compliance, organizations must choose platforms that automate data classification, maintenance, and reporting while accelerating access to crucial information. With these controls and automations in place, documentation goes from a weeks-long slog to a few hours of work.
Pitfall #3: Lack of reporting, backup, and recovery control
Many companies lack control of crucial aspects of data management such as reporting, backup, and recovery, hindering their compliance efforts. When organizations have little insight into how their data flows, they don’t know whether it’s in compliance and are frequently delayed in meeting regulatory requirements.
Gaps in transparency, data integrity, and responsiveness undermine compliance, making it difficult to nimbly complete audits or regulatory reviews. Simultaneously, if backup and recovery processes remain obscure and out of sight, not only is it difficult to have confidence in them, but also the likelihood of data loss and corruption increases.
Looking to the new year, businesses must prioritize the integration of solutions that provide proof of compliance with comprehensive insight into the data and their own internal policies. Purpose-built compliance solutions also can streamline reporting by accelerating encryption and providing automations that exceed regulatory backup, restoration, and retention mandates. Upleveling oversight of these aspects of data management creates the potential for growth. With robust automation in place, businesses can redirect resources to high-level tasks and smooth strategic moves like mergers and acquisitions.
Pitfall #4: Poor data integrity
Accuracy, consistency, and reliability are the cornerstones of a solid compliance program. Yet, when data integrity is compromised through issues like duplicate entries, missing information, or unauthorized changes, companies cannot provide dependable documentation, increasing the risk of non-compliance. These can lead to erroneous reports that wreak havoc on any organization’s ability to respond to audits, rectify errors in the data supply chain, and address data breaches with the required speed.
A high level of data integrity requires access to security insights and the ability to identify gaps in visibility. Data classification and bulk updates can accelerate compliance and create greater standardization, while also helping IT leaders find areas of improvement.
Pitfall #5: IT overwhelm
As new regulatory requirements loom, IT teams and business leaders face the threat of overwhelm. 59% of security and IT leaders indicate their organization has multiple systems that must adhere to compliance requirements. With disjointed systems, piecemeal compliance, security, and backup solutions, and a lack of alignment on strategy, teams can become bogged down.
Confusion about data management policies and unclear expectations from the C-suite can further compound these issues, causing inconsistencies in data handling. The “people” aspect of compliance is essential to success, and failure to create an environment where data is prioritized, discussed, and managed with care can have serious repercussions on everything from reputation to profitability.
Data teams should be empowered to do more of what they do best, not be burdened by the stress of legacy systems and cumbersome processes. To future-proof compliance, business leaders should seek solutions that simplify reporting, create confidence in encryption, and offer visibility to create confidence in data and the decisions it informs.
Get ahead of the compliance curve
To create a truly future-proofed data program, organizations must proactively and comprehensively manage their data. With Own, teams can automate reporting, reduce data classification time, and mitigate the risks of non-compliance. Our compliance solution addresses all the pitfalls we’ve seen plague organizations as regulations change. But it also does more than that—it ensures business continuity , building trust in data and the solutions used to manage it, allowing the organization to move into the future with confidence.
Create the conditions for true innovation in 2025 by leveling up your SaaS data compliance. Let’s talk about how Own can help.
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