New year, fresh start. And yet, somehow the same terrible privacy advice keeps showing up in boardrooms, Slack channels, and “a guy we know in IT” conversations.
Let’s gently (but firmly) toss these classics into the 2025 trash pile.
Yes. Hackers are famously known for respecting small businesses and skipping over easy targets out of pure kindness.
Reality check: smaller companies are easier, not safer. Less security, fewer controls, more chaos. Delicious.
Love this one. Truly.
IT handles systems. Privacy handles people, data, laws, vendors, notices, training, risk, and accountability.
Assuming IT “has privacy” is like assuming your electrician also practices medicine.
If you have:
A website
Employees
Clients
A scheduling tool
Congratulations. You collect data. Probably more than you think. And no, not knowing where it lives is not a defense.
Ah yes. The vintage privacy policy. A true collector’s item.
Unfortunately, regulators don’t accept “we forgot about it” as a legal strategy. Privacy policies should evolve, unlike that Word doc from 2018.
Bold strategy. Unfortunately, privacy laws are not written in the future tense. Neither are breach notifications, fines, or lawsuits.
Fixing privacy after an incident is like installing a smoke detector after the fire department leaves.
They do. Quietly. Consistently. And usually at the worst possible time for you.
Also, enforcement is only part of the fun. Reputational damage is the gift that keeps on giving.
You don’t need perfection. You need:
Visibility into your data
Clear ownership
Reasonable safeguards
Policies that match reality
And someone who actually knows what they’re doing
Leaving bad privacy advice in 2025 doesn’t make you dramatic. It makes you prepared, credible, and harder to mess with.
And honestly? That’s the vibe.