Navigating Privacy Solutions: Should You Buy or Build? Insights from Industry Experts

Privacy is no longer just a regulatory checkbox – it's a critical function that protects your company’s reputation and fosters trust with your customers. Building a robust privacy program is not a "nice to have," but a necessity in an era where data breaches, privacy violations, and regulatory scrutiny can severely harm business operations.

However, a key question that organizations face is: Should you invest in a third-party privacy technology solution, or should you build privacy capabilities in-house through privacy engineering?

At TechStabs Consulting, we have deep expertise across various privacy technologies, including OneTrust, and are equally skilled in privacy engineering. Our team’s multidisciplinary backgrounds in legal, engineering, artificial intelligence, and product development uniquely position us to guide organizations through this critical decision. Whether you're a small startup looking to establish a foundational privacy program or a large enterprise refining your existing systems, we help you evaluate your needs, goals, and capacity to choose the right path forward.

The "Buy" Option: Leveraging Established Privacy Technologies

Opting to buy a privacy technology solution can be appealing for several reasons:

1. Speed to Compliance: Leading privacy tools like OneTrust, BigID, Privado, and others come with pre-configured frameworks for global privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA, LGPD), helping you achieve compliance faster. This is particularly beneficial if you’re facing imminent regulatory deadlines.

2. Scalability: Third-party platforms are built to scale with your business. Whether you need to manage privacy rights requests, automate data discovery, or streamline third-party risk assessments, these solutions are designed to handle increasing data volumes and complexities as your company grows.

3. Expertise in the Box: These platforms often come with built-in best practices for privacy management, guided workflows, and automation tools that reduce the burden on your internal teams. Plus, regular updates ensure you're always equipped with the latest in privacy technology and regulatory changes.

4. Integration Capabilities: Most privacy tech solutions integrate easily with other systems, like CRM or cloud storage, ensuring seamless data flow across your organization.

   
   

When to Choose "Buy": If you're looking for a turnkey solution that minimizes internal development time and effort while offering robust, scalable capabilities, then "buying" could be the best choice.

The "Build" Option: Privacy Engineering Capabilities In-House

On the other hand, building privacy solutions through in-house privacy engineering can offer greater customization and long-term flexibility. Here's why you might consider going down this route:

1. Tailored to Your Unique Needs: While off-the-shelf solutions offer a wide array of features, they may not fully align with your specific business processes or data flows. Building your own privacy engineering capabilities allows you to design custom solutions that precisely fit your organizational structure and privacy objectives.

2. Control and Ownership: By developing privacy solutions in-house, you have full control over the architecture, data flow, and security measures. This can lead to better alignment with your internal risk management frameworks and a higher degree of confidence in your systems.

3. Long-Term Cost Efficiency: While building requires a significant upfront investment in terms of time and resources, it can result in lower long-term costs if you don’t need to pay ongoing subscription fees for third-party software.

4. Continuous Innovation: With in-house privacy engineering teams, you can continuously iterate and improve your privacy systems based on real-time feedback, emerging threats, and evolving business needs, ensuring that your privacy framework remains cutting-edge.

When to Choose "Build": If you have the internal expertise, resources, and time to develop custom privacy solutions tailored specifically to your organization’s needs, building your privacy technology may be the optimal choice.

The Hybrid Approach: Buy & Build

In some cases, the right answer is a hybrid approach. You can start with an established privacy technology solution to meet immediate needs while simultaneously building in-house capabilities to handle more specialized functions. This way, you benefit from the speed and scalability of third-party solutions while maintaining control over critical privacy processes unique to your business.

How TechStabs Consulting Can Help

At TechStabs Consulting, we don’t just implement tools or engineer solutions. We collaborate with you to develop a privacy strategy that aligns with your company’s goals. Whether you decide to buy, build, or combine the two, our multidisciplinary expertise across privacy laws, privacy technology, and privacy engineering ensures that you get the best of both worlds.

We guide you through every step of the decision-making process, helping you:

• Assess your privacy needs based on regulatory requirements, industry standards, and business objectives.

• Evaluate third-party solutions to determine whether they meet your operational and privacy requirements.

• Build custom privacy solutions with our team of experienced privacy engineers, ensuring seamless integration with your existing technology stack.

• Strategize and implement a hybrid approach, balancing the convenience of third-party tools with the flexibility of custom-built capabilities.

Stay tuned for our next article, where we’ll dive into a comparison of leading privacy technology solutions, including OneTrust, BigID, Privado, Ethyca, amongst others, to help you decide which platform might be the best fit for your organization’s needs.

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About TechStabs Consulting

TechStabs Consulting provides tailored privacy technology solutions, privacy engineering, and AI governance services to businesses looking to build or enhance their privacy programs. With deep expertise in OneTrust and other privacy technologies, we offer strategic guidance to help organizations navigate the complexities of privacy management.