European companies underprepared for Data Protection Regulation

The report called The State of the European Data Privacy Survey 2016 found that one in 10 companies said all employees can access customers’ personal information, and one in 20 cited that all staff can access customers’ payment details.

The results also reveal that 35 % of the respondents don’t believe their company takes an ethical approach to securing and protecting data, yet only 14 % felt that everyone in the company has a responsibility to ensure data is protected. Only 22 % of businesses consider compliance a top priority in the next two years.

The report assumes from the data that consumers don’t think data security and privacy is a top priority citing that 74% of the respondents don’t think an organizations privacy track record is a top three consideration for consumers.

The report was conducted through interviews with 900 business and IT decision makers and shows that 91% of respondents have concerns about their ability to become compliant. The report broke down the results in three primary areas: lack of regulatory awareness, a consumer disconnect and cultural preparedness.