WireWheel Privacy Management in Three Gartner Hype Cycles

Recognizing the influence of privacy requirements on key business and technical decisions, Gartner has placed privacy management tools within not just one but three 2019 Hype Cycles.

The privacy landscape is changing rapidly and new technologies are emerging on a continuous basis. “Maturing privacy requirements globally have driven organizations to identify specific privacy requirements and compliance needs, creating substantial demand which has driven rapid development in the emerging vendor space,” Gartner reports. “Security and Risk Management (SRM) leaders in organizations that operate in multiple jurisdictions especially benefit from privacy management tools, facing various privacy laws. Similarly, SRM leaders operating in regulated industries such as healthcare, financial services and in regulated jurisdictions like the EU, or facing U.S. state privacy requirements like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), will benefit from these tools.”

But Why Three Different Hype Cycles?

By including WireWheel as a Sample Vendor in the Hype Cycle for Privacy, 2019, Hype Cycle for Data Security, 2019, and Hype Cycle for Risk Management, 2019, Gartner believes people come to the privacy problem from multiple perspectives. Each function in an organization – privacy, security, and risk management – has its own objectives, metrics and solutions. Privacy is where they intersect.

Privacy teams are subject matter experts typically responsible for managing Subject Rights Requests (SRR) and Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs). Security teams keep personal data safe from cyber threats and insider abuse and must store and classify data according to privacy needs. Risk management teams consider privacy in light of legal requirements and business continuity.

None of them can address privacy on their own, which means privacy solutions must meet the requirements of all three. As Gartner points out, “wherever possible, SRM leaders should participate in related security, risk and compliance initiatives to achieve efficient spending across these disciplines and ensure that deployed tools sufficiently cover privacy demands. After all, various stakeholders require information dashboards with differently presented information, essentially derived from the same subsystems.”

According to Gartner, each Hype Cycle drills down into five key phases of a technology’s life cycle:

• Innovation Trigger: A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.
• Peak of Inflated Expectations: Early publicity produces a number of success stories — often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; many do not.
• Trough of Disillusionment: Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.
• Slope of Enlightenment: More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallize and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.
• Plateau of Productivity: Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off.”

Interrelated, Integrated Solutions Appear in All Stages of Each Hype Cycle

Gartner includes WireWheel as a Sample Vendor of privacy management tools, noting “comprehensive (privacy and risk) management tools and consulting services are priced at a level that is prohibitive for many privacy officers, who usually have only a limited budget, which drives an increased interest in specialized (and less expensive) privacy management solutions. Hence, purpose-built (modular) privacy management tools have emerged that focus on fast deployment and usability.” The “modular” approach WireWheel enables is key for organizations starting to manage and automate critical privacy activities at scale. For example, companies expecting an influx of Subject Rights Requests (SRR) under CCPA come January 2020 need to get up and running with cost-effective solutions that solve their immediate need.

Additionally, to realize its true transformational potential, privacy management must be approached with a holistic strategy. Gartner notes that “finally, there are early indications that multiple privacy tools, developed for very specific use cases, are starting to converge toward more comprehensive privacy management platforms that can replace fragmented current solutions.” Gartner recommends “ideally, tooling supports compliance with both oversight, documentation and transparency, and offers integration with associated platforms such as data-centric audit protection (DCAP) or mobile device management (MDM), where control over personal data throughout its lifecycle is in scope” and advises companies to “look for privacy management vendors that integrate with various vertically connected solutions.”

We agree. Privacy can’t be managed in a silo. That’s why WireWheel is built to integrate with and enable many privacy solutions.

• Data classification to organize information assets and identify personal data
• Data security governance for risk assessment, prioritization and mitigation
• Data operations to improve the communication, integration and automation of data flows
• Privacy-by-design strategies that embed privacy often and early in technology development, procedures and processes
• Consent and preference management that allows customers to determine how much of their data to expose, to whom and for what purpose
• Format-preserving encryption to protect data at rest and in use, for example when fulfilling Subject Rights Requests

A comprehensive approach to privacy management considers every part of the privacy experience, both for internal teams and external customers and partners. By incorporating multiple solutions at every phase of the Hype Cycles, from the Innovation Trigger to the Plateau of Productivity, WireWheel’s approach supports you throughout your privacy journey.

Disclaimer

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.