IAPP's Federal Privacy Professional Annual Survey finds that 74 percent of federal privacy officers cite inadequate training for non-privacy staff as their top operational risk.
The International Association of Privacy Professionals' 2025 Federal Privacy Professional Annual Survey found that 74 percent of federal agency privacy officers identified inadequate privacy training for non-privacy staff as their top operational risk — ranking above technology failures (61 percent), budget constraints (58 percent), and third-party data sharing (47 percent).
The survey's qualitative findings illuminate the specific concern: privacy officers report that data breaches and Privacy Act violations at their agencies are most commonly caused by well-intentioned employees who simply do not understand how Privacy Act requirements apply to their work.
Common non-privacy staff failures identified include creating new data collections without triggering PIA processes, sharing PII with contractors without required Privacy Act authorizations, transmitting PII without required encryption, and retaining data beyond authorized retention periods.
Privacy officers most commonly request training in data classification and handling, PIA process requirements, and the employee's specific Privacy Act obligations — a training package that maps directly to several GovAcademy courses.
GovAcademy's Data Classification and Handling course (GA-033), Privacy Impact Assessment Workshop (GA-038), and Data Privacy and FISMA Fundamentals course (GA-006) together constitute the training package that addresses the specific gaps identified in the IAPP survey.
The survey found that agencies with established privacy training programs experienced 54 percent fewer Privacy Act violations than agencies without such programs, providing a compelling return-on-investment case for privacy training investment.
GovAcademy is developing an integrated Privacy Compliance Learning Path combining GA-006, GA-033, and GA-038 into a structured program suitable for agency-wide adoption.