Almost two-thirds of UK businesses are not entirely confident in their compliance with local and EU regulation around data protection and cookie banners, according to new research from leading European privacy tech company, Usercentrics.
Despite consumers placing more and more value on solid data privacy practices, only 37% of businesses say they are completely confident that they are compliant with current privacy regulation.
Finance and insurance, as well as software businesses, are most confident in their compliance levels, while agriculture, government and public administration and non-profit institutions present with the lowest confidence levels.
When asked about the main factors that would help them to ensure compliance, businesses cited both clearer regulation without ‘grey areas’ (43%) and better internal resources to keep up to speed with regulatory changes (43%). Having a designated person or team in charge of managing the process was cited by two-thirds of businesses (36%) as something that would further increase confidence in compliance with current regulations.
The survey of 600 businesses across the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain found that there were significant differences between small and large companies on the main drivers to ensure compliance. Small businesses mostly fear that lack of compliance may result in losing the trust of its customers (38%). While over half (52%) of large businesses also fear the loss of trust, they are also concerned about the damage non-compliance may do to its public image (42%).
