2026 Benchmark Study · Independent & Blinded

The 2026 State of Data Privacy & Governance in the AI Era

How security, privacy, and compliance leaders at regulated organizations are governing data as AI moves into production — what's changing, what's breaking, and where the gaps are. An independent, blinded benchmark.

01 Take part in the study → Methodology

Open report — no email wall. Findings published in aggregate.

01 / SCOPE

Instrument parameters

InstrumentP.01

30questions

A single structured survey spanning four measured dimensions.

AI adoption Governance maturity Data-rights ops Readiness

PopulationP.02

6sectors

Regulated industries, segmented for cross-sector comparison.

Financial services Healthcare & life sci Technology Retail Telecom Public sector

ReportingP.03

100% aggregate

Anonymous & confidential. Responses are never attributed to any individual or organization.

Anonymous Confidential Never attributed

Fig. 01 — Study scope & reporting basis Calibration: blinded category benchmark

02 / METHODOLOGY

About the study

Audience

Security, privacy, compliance & data leaders — the practitioners and executives accountable for governing data.

Organizations

500+ employees, operating in regulated industries with material data-protection obligations.

Design

Blinded category benchmark. We ask about the category — not any one vendor — to keep results unbiased.

Reporting

Aggregate only. Individual responses are confidential and reported solely as anonymized totals.

This is an independent benchmark, not a vendor survey. No question references a product or sponsor, and no respondent is identifiable in any published output. Fielded 2026.

03 / Participate

Contribute your perspective. See how the field compares.

The survey takes a few minutes. Participation is anonymous, and the resulting report is open to all.

↳ Take part in the study →