Strong Privacy Requires Strong Security — and GenAI Raises the Stakes

For years, organizations have treated privacy and security as if they were parallel tracks, related, but separate. Privacy teams focused on policies, notices and regulatory commitments. Security teams handled infrastructure, access controls, monitoring and incident response. But in the real world, this separation has become increasingly artificial.

You cannot claim to protect someone’s data if it isn’t properly secured. And you cannot secure that data effectively if you don’t understand the privacy obligations attached to it (i.e., who should access it, how long it should be retained, what jurisdictions it touches, or how it may be used). Privacy and security are not competing disciplines; they are inseparable components of the same responsibility.

As Data Privacy Day has arrived, it’s an ideal moment for organizations to pause and examine the gap between their stated privacy commitments and the controls operating day to day. True privacy protection isn’t expressed in elegant policy language, it’s about the technical, procedural, and cultural disciplines that make those policies real in daily operations.

The Fundamentals Still Matter

Despite the rapid evolution of technology and regulation, the fundamentals matter more than ever:

Strong Identity and Access Management

Ensuring only the right people have access to the right data at the right time and removing unnecessary access as roles change.

Mastering Basic Security Controls

Encryption, patching hygiene, multifactor authentication, log monitoring, and secure configuration remain the clearest indicators of whether an organization can truly protect sensitive data.

Responding Quickly When Something Goes Wrong

Breaches happen, even in mature environments. The differentiator is how fast and effectively an organization detects, contains, and recovers from them, and how transparently it communicates.

Disciplined Data Hygiene

This means understanding what data you collect, classifying it correctly, retaining only what you genuinely need, and enforcing governance that limits how data moves inside and across systems.

These are not merely security pillars; they are the foundation of credible privacy protection. 

Why This Matters Even More in 2026: The AI Acceleration

The rise of Generative AI (genAI) has fundamentally reshaped how organizations must think about data protection. Data is no longer something we simply store. It has become the rocket fuel for every AI system we build, buy or use.

The implications are profound:

• AI systems learn from the data they ingest
• Outputs may inadvertently reveal sensitive information
• Third‑party AI tools may process data outside the organization’s governance boundary
• “Shadow AI” used by employees can leak proprietary or personal data
• Large Language Models (LLMs) introduce new risks 

If organizations don’t understand how their data is collected, labeled, shared, governed, and used by AI systems, they will face exposures that traditional security controls were never designed to handle. Simply put, without data maturity, there can be no AI maturity.

The Blueprint for Success

The organizations that will thrive in 2026 and beyond will be those that treat privacy and security as a unified active discipline, woven into product design, development, architecture, and day-to-day decision-making.

Success will require:

• Balancing innovation with responsibility
• Embedding privacy and security into AI design and deployment
• Maintaining governance that evolves as data volumes and use cases grow
• Ensuring AI ambitions are grounded in clear data stewardship and mature security controls
• Recognizing that strong privacy and strong security are mutually dependent

Ultimately, protecting data, especially in the age of AI, is about more than preventing breaches. It’s about preserving trust and enabling innovation responsibly.

This Data Privacy Day, the message is clearer than ever: privacy and security must advance together. Organizations that recognize their interdependence will be the ones prepared for the next wave of technological change and will innovate with confidence.