Privacy Professionals In India Face Mounting Stress Amid Complex Compliance Challenges: Isaca Survey

By Author: Madhulina
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ISACA, the leading global professional association dedicated to advancing careers in digital trust, has released its State of Privacy 2025 survey report, highlighting increasing stress levels among privacy professionals in India and worldwide. Despite progress in privacy staffing and strategic alignment, professionals continue to face mounting pressures amid a rapidly evolving compliance and risk environment.
The global survey, which gathered insights from over 1,600 professionals, including 126 from India, reveals that 53% of privacy professionals in India find their roles more stressful than five years ago, with 29% experiencing a significant increase in stress levels. The primary stress drivers include the rapid evolution of technology (76%), compliance challenges (67%), and resource shortages (57%).
The report highlights critical challenges in India’s privacy landscape, particularly in training and data security:
• Data Breaches & Leakage: 42% of respondents globally identified data breaches as a concern, compared to 49% from India.
• Lack of Training: 47% of respondents worldwide cited ...
... inadequate training as a major issue compared to 53% from India.
• Training & Awareness Gaps:
o 49% of global respondents said privacy training is included in new hire programs, compared to 53% from India.
o For global and India-based respondents, 6% of each reported no privacy training.
These figures indicate a pressing need for enhanced training and awareness programs in India to mitigate privacy risks effectively.
A Challenging Landscape
Indian respondents identified three primary challenges affecting privacy programs: a lack of competent resources (46%), managing risks associated with new technologies (40%), and unclear mandates, roles, and responsibilities (37%). Resource allocation remains a mixed landscape, as 44% of Indian respondents believe their privacy budgets are appropriately funded, while 36% globally perceive underfunding as a concern. Encouragingly, 51% of Indian respondents anticipate a budget increase in the coming year. There are some challenges that come with hiring , with 70% stating that expert-level privacy professionals are the hardest to recruit.
Additionally, privacy professionals struggle with compliance clarity, as only 37% of India-based organizations find it easy to understand privacy obligations, while 19% consider it difficult.
Respondents from India also provided insights into their most common privacy failures, listing lack of training or poor training (53%), data breaches (49%), not performing a risk analysis (43%) and non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations (43%) in the top three.
“As India’s digital economy expands, organizations must tackle skill shortages, evolving compliance demands, and emerging technology risks. Prioritizing continuous training, privacy awareness, and privacy by design is crucial to strengthening compliance, mitigating risks, and fostering long-term digital trust, positioning organizations for sustainable success in an increasingly data-driven world.” says RV Raghu, director, Versatilist Consulting India Pvt Ltd, and ISACA India Ambassador. Bright Spots
Despite these challenges, the research highlights several encouraging trends. While the median privacy staff size has seen a slight decline from the previous year, fewer respondents report understaffing in technical and legal/compliance roles, indicating some progress in workforce stabilization. Additionally, 81% of Indian respondents affirm that their privacy strategy aligns with organizational objectives, and 63% believe their boards of directors adequately prioritize privacy. Indian organizations are also demonstrating a strong commitment to compliance, with 89% leveraging frameworks or regulations to manage privacy and 69% enforcing documented privacy policies and procedures. Twenty-nine percent of Indian organizations believe they are unlikely to experience a material privacy breach in the next 12 months.
Privacy by Design as a Differentiator
The survey underscores the importance of privacy by design, with 76 percent of Indian respondents practicing this approach when building new applications and services. Enterprises that integrate privacy into the engineering process report:
The survey found that enterprises based in India that always practice privacy by design are more likely to:
• Have high confidence in their privacy teams (68% versus 48% total in India)
• Believe their technical privacy area is appropriately staffed (52% versus 45% total in India)
• Believe their boards of directors prioritize privacy (77% versus 55% total in India)

“When privacy is aligned with business objectives, integrated with a privacy by design approach, and viewed as both an ethical and compliance responsibility, organizations stand to gain tremendous value,” says Safia Kazi, ISACA Principal, Privacy Professional Practices. “Enterprises must prioritize and advance their privacy programs by leveraging emerging technology, frameworks, training, and best practices to keep pace with the evolving digital landscape.”
For a complimentary copy of the survey report and to access other related content, visit www.isaca.org/state-of-privacy.

About ISACA
ISACA® (www.isaca.org) is a global community advancing individuals and organizations in their pursuit of digital trust. For more than 50 years, ISACA has equipped individuals and enterprises with the knowledge, credentials, education, training and community to progress their careers, transform their organizations, and build a more trusted and ethical digital world. ISACA is a global professional association and learning organization that leverages the expertise of its 180,000+ members who work in digital trust fields such as information security, governance, assurance, risk, privacy and quality. It has a presence in 188 countries, including 228 chapters worldwide. Through the ISACA Foundation, ISACA supports IT education and career pathways for under resourced and underrepresented populations.