Building a strong privacy culture is more than ticking compliance boxes. To make real progress, you need to measure what truly counts—your team’s behaviours and attitudes toward privacy. Embracing "People-First Privacy" means focusing on the human side of privacy and ensuring that your efforts are driving meaningful change.

Why measure behaviours and attitudes?

Traditional metrics, like policy updates or the implementation of new tools, can only tell you so much. They show that systems are in place but don’t capture how employees actually think about and act on privacy in their day-to-day roles. By assessing behaviours and attitudes, you gain insight into the maturity of your privacy culture and where you can make a difference.

Focusing on behaviours and attitudes helps answer questions like: Do employees see privacy as important? Are they vigilant when handling data, or are risky behaviours going unnoticed? Tracking these factors allows you to identify gaps and make improvements that drive a stronger, more resilient culture of privacy.

How to measure privacy attitudes and behaviours

Tracking behaviours and attitudes can seem daunting, but there are straightforward ways to get started. Using tools like surveys, focus groups, and feedback forms, you can get a picture of how privacy is viewed and practiced across your organisation. Here’s a breakdown of key areas to focus on:

• Culture surveys: Culture surveys are important for assessing employees' beliefs and understanding of privacy in the organization. By tailoring questions about privacy policies and their importance, you can gain insights into employees' awareness and attitudes. Open-ended questions can reveal misconceptions, allowing for targeted education. Regular surveys also help track changes in attitudes and measure the effectiveness of privacy initiatives over time.
• Risk assessments: Risk assessments are essential for understanding how privacy is managed in practice and identifying potential risks. Analyzing how different teams handle personal data can highlight patterns or behaviors that may lead to breaches. Identifying roles more prone to risky practices allows for focused training and interventions. By addressing these risks through revised procedures and enhanced security measures, you can create a safer privacy environment.
• Training feedback: Gathering feedback from training sessions is crucial for evaluating how well privacy knowledge is developing among employees. Soliciting responses after training helps you understand what worked well and what needs improvement. Follow-up assessments can measure how well employees retain and apply information. Using this feedback to refine training ensures ongoing relevance and effectiveness, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improving the organization’s overall privacy practices.

Each of these methods provides a piece of the overall picture, showing where you may need to adjust strategies or focus on more targeted interventions. By integrating culture surveys, risk assessments, and training feedback, you can create a comprehensive approach to enhancing privacy awareness and practices within your organization.

Identifying gaps and where to focus

The insights from these measurements are invaluable in identifying where your privacy culture could improve. Some examples of areas to look out for include:

• Low awareness: Do certain teams or roles lack understanding of core privacy practices?
• Negative attitudes: Are there pockets of resistance or indifference towards privacy?
• Risky behaviours: Do certain tasks or practices increase the likelihood of a privacy incident?

Once you know where the issues lie, you can tailor your training, communication, and policy efforts to address these gaps more effectively.

Tailoring interventions to make an impact

With a clear understanding of where your privacy culture needs strengthening, you can tailor your interventions accordingly. For example, if there’s a lack of awareness, a training programme focused on privacy fundamentals might be most effective. If employees are resistant to privacy protocols, focusing on the benefits of privacy in their specific roles may help shift attitudes.

Some effective approaches include:

• Customised training: Address the specific gaps identified through your assessments. For example, if data handling knowledge is lacking, focus on secure data practices.
• Adjusting communication: Ensure your messages about privacy are clear, relevant, and accessible, addressing misconceptions or concerns directly.
• Targeted policies: Introduce guidelines or reminders where risky behaviours are most likely to occur, keeping them front of mind for those affected.

By targeting efforts to areas that genuinely need support, you’ll see a much greater impact than with a generic one-size-fits-all approach.

Benchmarking and tracking progress

Regular measurement is essential to track progress and understand the impact of your privacy initiatives. After implementing changes, re-assessing behaviours and attitudes can reveal whether your efforts are making a difference.

Some metrics to track include:

• Shifts in attitude: Are employees increasingly seeing privacy as important to their roles?
• Changes in behaviour: Are risky practices declining, and are employees demonstrating more privacy-conscious actions?
• Reduction in risks: Is your organisation becoming more secure as privacy awareness increases?

Benchmarking helps you see where improvements are happening and allows you to refine or adapt your approach as needed. Celebrating progress reinforces the value of privacy efforts and motivates employees to stay engaged.

Understanding the role of psychology

Privacy is influenced by psychological factors, from personal beliefs to habits. Recognising this helps in designing interventions that resonate. For instance, some employees might view privacy rules as unnecessary, while others may see them as barriers to productivity. Addressing these views through training and communication can reshape perspectives and promote a privacy-first mindset.

Even small adjustments in how privacy is discussed and prioritised can lead to significant shifts in attitudes and behaviours. By acknowledging psychological factors, you’re better able to craft messages that genuinely connect with your team.

Making measurement part of your privacy culture

Once you start tracking behaviours and attitudes, it’s important to make this a regular practice rather than a one-off effort. Engaging employees in the process, being transparent about findings, and sharing positive changes all contribute to embedding measurement into your privacy culture.

Encourage feedback, keep privacy front of mind with ongoing initiatives, and celebrate improvements to build momentum. Over time, this regular focus reinforces the idea that privacy is a shared responsibility, helping sustain a privacy-first mindset across the organisation.

Conclusion

Measuring behaviours and attitudes is essential for a robust privacy culture. By tracking these factors, you move beyond compliance to understand how privacy is valued and practiced by your team. This approach allows you to make data-driven decisions, tailoring interventions where they’re most needed and seeing real progress over time.

With "People-First Privacy," you focus on what truly matters—building a team that’s actively engaged with privacy. By regularly measuring and improving these critical aspects, you strengthen your organisation’s privacy culture, creating a safer environment for data and for people.