Unless you're in a regulated industry, or headquartered in the European Union, chances are that your privacy organization has been limited to one or two lawyers, and maybe a data security expert. This small group has probably been tasked with making sure the firm is in compliance with local laws, and with writing and managing onerous and impenetrable consumer-facing privacy policies. In other words, these teams have worked to keep the company out of legal trouble.

But data privacy, collection, and use practices are becoming more visible, to regulators, to media and ultimately to individuals. And as a result, firms need a different kind of privacy organization to meet the need for transparency head-on. 

So tell us, has your privacy organization changed in the past few years? Are you staffing it with new skillsets? Creating more dotted lines to teams like marketing, product development, etc? Changing from a compliance-focused organization to one poised to capitalize on privacy as a market differentiator?

If so, my colleagues, Heidi Shey, Enza Iannopollo and I would love to hear from you for current research we're working on. Reply here, or email fkhatibloo@forrester.com, and THANKS!