In response to the pandemic, business has changed. Business processes have changed, organizations are supporting remote home working on a huge scale, economic and health constraints have business operating with a reduced workforce with employees sharing responsibilities and wearing multiple hats. A time of change and crisis leads to compliance exposure.

One critical area of compliance risk exposure is privacy compliance. As business processes change in context of the pandemic, the flow and use of personal information has also changed.

Access to personal data is allowed from home offices that might not be secure. Working with reduced staff, remaining employees have new and multiple responsibilities and may not be aware of how to protect personal information and privacy. With less oversight, employees may feel they can use personal information for purposes it was never intended for. Exposure to GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy regulations is growing during this crisis.

This is further complicated by increased scams and hacking attempts to compromise personal information. Hackers, scammers, and various cyber-underworld elements are using the crisis to gain access to personal information.

In this time of crisis, it is imperative that organizations maintain their privacy programs. This includes: