Companies are fast realizing that a sound privacy compliance posture can not only help their bottom line and bolster their legal department's stature as a central business unit, but also, at the very least, net them some new tools.

On Wednesday, privacy company Ethyca released a survey indicating that 74% of companies have plans to spend more on privacy in the coming year. The report drew responses from 100 C-level executives or decision-makers from companies located across a wide spectrum of industries and generally suggests that companies are talking privacy more seriously.

However, it also quotes the results of another recent Ethyca survey showing that 56% of over 200 general counsel respondents felt their company was unprepared for the number of privacy regulations emerging across the globe. But Cillian Kieran, founder of Ethyca, argued the influence of legal department GCs has "unquestionably" grown since the early days of the General Data Protection Regulation and the more recent California Consumer Privacy Act.