The Growing Value—and Risk—of Personal Data

One of today's most vexing challenges is the quest to protect personal data and ensure privacy for employees, consumers and other stakeholders. As breaches, breakdowns and cyber-security meltdowns occur on an increasingly regular basis, it's critical for organizations to address these challenges and build a more secure data protection framework. A recently released report from Accenture, "Guarding and Growing Personal Data Value," delivers some intriguing insights into the security strategies and practices being implemented. The consulting organization surveyed 578 business professionals across seven economies—Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the United States—and eight industry groups. The key findings include a crisis of trust that is emerging in the data security space. Today's consumers are increasingly steering clear of companies that violate their personal data, and many of them seek a data dividend—an ability to monetize their own data—as the business world wades deeper into the digital economy. Here's a look at some of the highlights of the report.