Forthright and full disclosure can soften the blow of even the most damaging security incident, but failing to meet transparency obligations — whether explaining a vendor relationship or a customer data incident — can undermine trust. Sally-Anne Hinfey, vice president and deputy general counsel at SurveyMonkey, argues that compliance transparency is about modeling integrity and practicing shared accountability, where every individual plays a role in protecting data and companies that view every interaction through customers’ eyes earn trust more consistently.
Companies today operate within an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Requirements are constantly evolving, and security incidents can compromise systems with little warning. Customers, regulators, vendors and partners now expect clear, direct disclosure of data handling practices, policies and incidents that affect their privacy or security.
In this environment, even a single lapse can weaken consumer confidence and erode loyalty. More than 80% of consumers impacted by a data breach say they would stop doing business with a company after it experienced a cyberattack, according to the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). A 2025 peer-reviewed study found that the way a company responds to a data breach, including how transparent it is the moment a data breach occurs, is a significant predictor of whether customers maintain trust after the breach. Forthright and full disclosure can soften the blow of even the most damaging security incident.
An effective compliance program serves as both a safeguard against risk and a cornerstone of organizational integrity. It demonstrates a company’s commitment to operating responsibly, protecting stakeholder privacy and maintaining transparency in every interaction. It also reinforces consumer confidence in a brand’s reliability and ethics, forming the foundation for enduring loyalty.
Naturally, compliance, privacy, trust and loyalty are intricately intertwined. This delicate balance is always shifting alongside the introduction of new technologies, advanced data management tools and evolving international laws and industry standards. Organizations that approach this ever-changing scale with sensitivity and clarity are already well on their way to turning compliance transparency into a mechanism for long-term loyalty.
Transparency is a shared responsibility
Regulatory compliance takes a village. Selecting the right vendors and partners — and actively verifying their compliance — is an important piece of the transparency equation. This begins with assigning responsibility within your organization for reviewing vendor documents, demos and trials to ensure that your standards are consistently met. You must assess their compliance to ensure they have the right controls in place, then re-evaluate annually to track ongoing adherence. Beyond technical compliance, these practices also convey that accountability extends beyond your organization, setting clear expectations for your broader network.
Even the strongest internal compliance program can falter if transparency breaks down anywhere across the network, reinforcing the earlier point that confidence can erode quickly when disclosures are incomplete. Failing to meet your transparency obligations, whether it’s explaining a vendor relationship, a regulatory role or a customer data incident, can undermine trust. The challenge is intensifying as new compliance regulations continue to emerge, making it more complex for even the most well-organized businesses to keep up. This is why organizations need structured, reliable ways to understand where transparency gaps exist and how stakeholders perceive their individual obligations.
As we look beyond internal and vendor practices, the regulatory landscape also becomes part of this complex equation. Rules are changing fast, and regulators can be unseen allies in sustaining trust. One effective approach is to assign a privacy or regulatory champion to your team who owns regulatory relationships. You might also create a champion program if your organization is large. These champs can proactively monitor new guidance, cascade that knowledge to business leaders and help translate complex changes across the company into compliance actions that make sense at every level. This activity shows stakeholders that your organization is serious about maintaining adherence to compliance regulations and understands it’s a team effort.
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Organizations can’t rely on policy alone to achieve full-circle transparency. They need multiple mechanisms for understanding how data practices truly function across daily operations, workflows and third-party interactions, not just how they’re documented. For example, organizations can conduct customer research to assess whether privacy disclosures are truly understood, internal assessments to gauge employee confidence in compliance procedures, third-party risk reviews to validate vendor controls and ongoing monitoring of regulatory guidance and enforcement trends.
Organizations using diverse, continuous and multi-channel risk and compliance signals are better positioned to anticipate breakdowns, manage trust and maintain compliance. Gartner has noted that organizations are rapidly shifting from point-in-time compliance checks to continuous monitoring models that surface real-time risk signals across customers, employees and third parties. GRC benchmarking from McKinsey suggests companies moving away from periodic audits toward continuous-monitoring frameworks are building stronger governance programs. Additional findings from 2024 show that organizations relying on fragmented vendor risk processes face higher incident rates, underscoring the need for unified, multi-signal oversight.
Within this broader framework, structured feedback tools like surveys are a practical and effective way to strengthen accountability across every stakeholder group. With customers, they help clarify whether data practices are understood and where expectations are shifting. With employees, pulse surveys can reveal whether teams feel equipped to uphold compliance standards, reinforcing a culture of responsibility. With vendors and partners, structured questionnaires help confirm compliance readiness and alignment on acceptable risk levels.
Beyond surveys, organizations can draw on multiple complementary mechanisms to collect data insights. Behavioral analytics reveals whether customers actually engage with consent notices and privacy controls. Internal audit logs and access-pattern monitoring show how data is handled across teams and help surface potential misuse. Third-party risk assessments validate vendor controls and expose gaps that contractual assurances may hide. When incorporated into a continuous feedback loop with structured feedback tools, these methods give organizations a fuller view of where compliance risks are emerging and signal that accountability and transparency are firm requirements.
When all parties participate in transparency, the cycle of full disclosure naturally repeats itself. The risk of inheriting unseen liabilities goes down, customers feel safer, businesses are better informed and regulators see higher compliance rates.
Ultimately, compliance transparency is about modeling integrity and practicing shared accountability. Every individual within an organization plays a role in protecting data and upholding security practices. Companies that embrace the responsibility and view every interaction through the eyes of their customers earn trust more consistently and preserve it more successfully. By leading with transparency and demonstrating trustworthiness in everyday decisions, you can strike the right balance to reduce risk while strengthening relationships and growing customer loyalty.
Sally-Anne Hinfey, PhD, is vice president and deputy general counsel at SurveyMonkey. 
