However, it has been reported that only 25% of consumers believe that most companies handle their personal data responsibly. And if consumers don’t believe that a company is taking their privacy seriously, they will not only refuse to share their personal information but also refuse to do business with such a company due to a lack of trust.

 In addition to losing customers, businesses can also be subject to penalization by consumer data protection regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, Consumer Data Protection Act in Australia, and India’s Personal Data Protection Bill, if they don’t pay enough attention to protecting consumer data. Considering the financial cost of neglecting consumer data protection, it would behoove businesses to pay more attention to it. They must have standardized policies, procedures, and technologies to ensure the protection of consumer data.

While framing policies and devising procedures can take some time and deliberate effort, the easiest yet very effective step businesses can take to ensure better consumer data protection is implementing firewall technology that automatically blocks the leakage of sensitive information. A next-generation contextually intelligent firewall, such as that developed by Gajshield, constantly monitors all organizational network activity to sense the potential leakage of sensitive information, which includes consumer data too. The system blocks any such data from leaving the confines of your organization by scanning all outbound content. Such a solution can take your business one step closer to implementing a foolproof consumer data protection strategy. It will ensure that you comply with both customers’ expectations and regulators’ requisites while preventing unnecessary costs.