Taking responsibility for what you do with personal data, and demonstrating the steps you have taken to protect people’s rights not only results in better legal compliance, it also offers you a competitive edge. Accountability is a real opportunity for you to show, and prove, how you respect people’s privacy. This can help you to develop and sustain people’s trust.
Furthermore, if something does go wrong, then being able to show that you actively considered the risks and put in place measures and safeguards can help you provide mitigation against any potential enforcement action. On the other hand, if you can’t show good data protection practices, it may leave you open to fines and reputational damage.