Companies that invest in privacy see an average return of 270% on their investments, with seven out of 10 companies seeing significant benefits from their privacy expenditures, according to an annual survey published by Cisco today.

In addition, more mature companies — as measured by a five-point accountability score — saw greater returns on their privacy investments, with high-scoring companies seeing an average benefit of 3.1 times return, compared to low-scoring companies, which saw an average benefit of 2.3 times return, according to the “Cisco Data Privacy Benchmark Study 2020.” The report, based on a survey of 2,500 security professionals familiar with their companies’ privacy practices, underscores that privacy programs are no longer just about avoiding fines but about building trust with customers, says Robert Waitman, director of privacy insights and innovation at Cisco.