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Americans Mistrust Companies with Personal Data, Study Shows

According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, most Americans believe that companies are tracking their activities on and offline, and that this activity is unavoidable. Not only that, but many also believe that they have little control over who can access an array of personal details, such as their location and online activity, including purchases they have made online or in person. This mistrust, coupled with the advent of more stringent data privacy regulations, means a more complex risk landscape for businesses operating online.

While companies often market services that collect data as improving the customer experience, those users likely disagree. In fact, 81% of the American public believe that the risks of companies collecting their data outweigh the benefits. This may have to do with a lack of understanding of what companies do with their data—59% say “they have very little/no understanding about what companies do with the data collected.”

It may also be a perceived lack of control over how companies are collecting and using that data, with 81% saying that “they have very little/no control” over companies collecting their data, and 79% “very/somewhat concerned about how companies use the data collected.” With more online activity, 72% of respondents said that “all, almost all or most of what they do online or while using their cellphone is being tracked by advertisers, technology firms or other companies,” and 64% report seeing ads based on their personal data.

Many companies outline how they use customer data in terms of service or other privacy disclaimers—according to the survey, 81% of respondents say they are asked to agree to a privacy policy at least once a month, and 25% almost daily. However, 74% report that they sometimes or never read a company’s privacy policy before agreeing, and only 22% read the entire text if they do read it.

Pew Data Trust

Security is also a worry, with 70% reporting that they feel like their data is less secure than it was five years ago and only 6% saying it is more secure today than in the past. Considering the vast array of data breaches, seemingly across all industries, this is likely not surprising. Millions of Americans have received notices from their banks, hospitals, or even their hardware store or ride-share app that their personal data has been compromised. According to cybersecurity company Norton, the first half of 2019 saw 3,800 breaches exposing 4.1 billion records, a 54% increase from the first half of 2018.

Given these results, it is no wonder that states, countries, and regions are beginning to enact strict regulations about data privacy. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which provides protections for the data of California residents, also exposes businesses that collect, store, use and disclose those residents’ data to serious liabilities. In response to some companies hiding breaches from the public, states are also weighing stronger breach reporting requirements with larger fines for violations. Whether these efforts will diminish user mistrust is unclear—63% said that “they understand very little or nothing at all about the laws and regulations that are currently in place to protect their data privacy.”

Cyber, Regulation Seen as Top Emerging Risks, Report Finds

SAN DIEGO—Forecasting risk is not expected to get easier in the next three years, with cyberattacks and regulation topping the list of emerging risks, according to a new report published jointly by Marsh and RIMS.

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The 13th annual Excellence in Risk Management report found that while risk professionals are increasingly relied upon to identify and assess emerging risks, there are still organizational and other barriers to identifying those risks. In fact, nearly half of survey respondents—48%—predicted that forecasting critical business risks will be more difficult three years from now, while just over one-quarter said it would be the same.

“Whether emerging risks are on your doorstep, around the corner, or on the far horizon, they have the potential to catch organizations unaware,” said Brian Elowe, Marsh’s U.S. client executive leader and co-author of the report. “It’s important for risk professionals to maintain awareness of global risk trends, and to make the connection to their organizations’ business strategy.”

Where do risk professionals turn when trying to understand the impacts of emerging risks on their organization? According to the report:
One of the goals of this year’s Excellence survey’s goal was to better understand how organizations view the emerging risks facing them, what tools they use and the barriers they face in assessing, modeling, and understanding the risks. According to the findings, a majority of respondents—61%—cited cyber-attacks as the likely source of their organization’s next critical risk. This was followed by regulation, cited by 58% of the respondents, and talent availability, cited by 40% of the respondents.

Based on survey responses and insights from numerous focus group discussions, it became clear that risk professionals generally agree on the importance of identifying emerging risks, and also that there is no clearly established framework for doing so. More can be done to better identify, assess, and manage the impact emerging risks may have on organizations.

For example, a majority—60%—of the risk management respondents said they use claims-based reviews as one of the primary means to assess emerging risks, compared to 38% who said they use predictive analytics.

“The widespread use of claims-based reviews means that a majority of organizations are relying on studying past incidents to predict how emerging risks will behave rather than using predictive analytic techniques like stochastic modeling and game theory to help inform their decision making,” Elowe said.

Survey respondents also cited several barriers to understanding the impact of emerging risks on their business strategy.

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Decisions with lack of cross-organization collaboration ranked first among risk professional respondents.

“Lack of collaboration across the organization is still an issue for many risk professionals. On the other hand, breaking down silos has become less of a concern for executives,” said Carol Fox, vice president of strategic initiatives for RIMS and co-author of the report. “Tackling emerging risks often requires creative yet pragmatic approaches. It has to encompass internal cross-functional conversations — formal and informal — around the intersection of risk and strategy, senior-leadership engagement, and tapping into external information sources. Risk professionals are encouraged to broaden the scope and collaboration around emerging risk issues within their organizations.”

According to the report:

As the risk environment becomes increasingly complex and more entwined with financial decisions, risk strategy is increasingly a boardroom issue. As we have seen in past Excellence surveys, senior leaders’ expectations of the risk management department have increased in everything from leading enterprise risk management to providing better risk quantification and analysis.

However, while more is being asked of risk professionals, investment is not necessarily keeping pace. For example, the percentage that say they expect to hire more staff dropped to 25% this year from 37% when we asked in 2015. “We’ve all experienced this elevation of risk management at our institutions, but…as we are battling for budget, it becomes pretty easy for risk management to get pushed over to the side,” said the assistant vice president of risk management at a major university.

The survey is based on more than 700 responses to an online survey and a series of focus groups with risk executives in January and February 2016.

Strong ERM Gives Companies Higher Market Value

A new study, “The Valuation Implications of Enterprise Risk Management Maturity,” released by the Journal of Risk and Insurance, has found that organizations exhibiting mature risk management practices realize a value growth potential of up to 25%.

The survey is the first wholly independent research project that confirms the value connection of mature enterprise risk management practices in organizations.

Using data from the RIMS Risk Maturity Model (RMM) gathered from 2006 to 2011, Mark Farrell, the paper’s author and the actuarial science and risk management program director at Queens University Management School of Belfast (QUMS) and Dr. Ronan Gallagher of the University of Edinburgh Business School, provided evidence through this research that firms that have reached mature levels of enterprise risk management qualities exhibit a higher firm value.

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 The broad data set encompassed publicly-traded organizations from a variety of industries. Nearly half the data tabulated by the researchers were submitted by RIMS members.

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The study’s authors reported that “firms that have successfully integrated the ERM process into both their strategic activities and everyday practices display superior ability in uncovering risk dependencies and relationships across the entire enterprise and as a consequence enhanced value when undertaking the ERM maturity journey.”

The authors added, “Upon decomposition of the maturity score, we find that the most important aspects of ERM from a valuation perspective relate to the level of top-down executive engagement and the resultant cascade of ERM culture throughout the firm.”

The RIMS Risk Maturity Model for Enterprise Risk Management (RIMS RMM), was developed in 2005 by risk professionals and LogicManager, and is a free assessment tool for risk professionals and executives to develop and improve sustainable enterprise risk management programs. This online resource allows organizations to score their risk programs and receive an immediate downloadable report.

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The report provides information not only on current maturity levels, but offers ideas on what it may take to achieve a higher level of maturity in each of seven attributes.

“One of the biggest challenges in implementing an enterprise risk management program is articulating the value that it brings,” said Carol Fox, RIMS director of strategic and enterprise practice. “This research makes that value link quite clear. Although the study necessarily focused on publicly traded companies, the value proposition of enterprise risk management applies to not-for-profits and the public sector as well. In highlighting this research, we hope that more organizations will take advantage of the RIMS Risk Maturity Model to improve their risk practices and, in turn, create additional enterprise value.”

Steven Minsky, CEO of LogicManager and developer of the RIMS Risk Maturity Mode noted, “Boards and ERM committees now have an actionable internal road map and a corresponding return on investment measure to improve their enterprise risk management maturity from whatever level they are at today.”