Data privacy software market to almost double between 2020 and 2025

As data privacy regulations continue to expand worldwide, privacy management software will continue to grow considerably over the next several years.

That's according to new research from IDC, which found that worldwide revenues of data privacy management software grew by 46.1% year-over-year in 2020.

It also found that revenues of the market will almost double between 2020 and 2025, reaching nearly $2.3 billion in 2025 with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.3%.

IDC defines data privacy management tech as software specifically designed and marketed to enable enterprise compliance with data privacy regulations such as California's CCPA and the European Union's GDPR.

The software is typically aimed at aiding organisations collect, track, demonstrate and manage data subjects' consent. These applications must facilitate, track, and automate discovery and storage of data subjects' data as well as the servicing of data subjects exercising their rights.

Many organisations also provide facilities to automatically assess, monitor, and manage the progress of the privacy program activities as well as provide dashboards and reporting capabilities.

"It feels like a broken record when discussing data privacy regulations because every year data privacy regimes continue to grow in jurisdictions around the globe. But as repetitive as it can be, it is still the truth," says IDC privacy and legal technology research manager Ryan O'Leary.

"The frameworks and regulations that enterprises need to manage continue to explode. Every region seems to be debating privacy except for the U.S. Federal government.

"End users are struggling with the sheer volume of regulations and need help with the regulatory change management from software providers.

The expansion of data privacy regulations aren't the only things organisations are dealing with in regards to privacy, IDC says. Growing data volumes across a patchwork of databases and endpoints are also presenting problems. However, there is a significant market opportunity for tools that help enterprises organise this data and limit the risk associated with it.

"Data visibility continues to be a blind spot for many organisations," says O'Leary.

"There is strong and growing market demand for automated data discovery and classification tools that scan for sensitive data across both cloud and on-premises environments and to provide that single source of data truth.

Solving the challenge of patchwork enterprise infrastructure and automation is the real golden ticket in data privacy.