Data drives innovation—but it also demands responsibility.

As organizations grapple with the accelerating pace of digital transformation, AI adoption, and evolving regulatory landscapes, privacy risk management is no longer optional—it’s strategic.

That’s why the initial public draft of the NIST Privacy Framework 1.1 is a timely and important release. It’s more than an update—it’s a signal that privacy must evolve in lockstep with cybersecurity and AI governance.

Let’s explore what’s inside, why it matters, and how your organization can leverage it to lead with trust.

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🧭 What Is the NIST Privacy Framework?

Originally released in 2020, the NIST Privacy Framework is a voluntary, risk-based framework that helps organizations identify, assess, manage, and communicate privacy risks.

Think of it as a playbook for:

• Designing privacy-first systems, products, and services
• Aligning privacy with enterprise risk management and strategic goals
• Improving transparency with customers, regulators, and business partners

Version 1.1 enhances this playbook in some critical ways—and in today’s environment, that enhancement is essential.

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🚀 What’s New in Version 1.1?

The 1.1 draft (released April 2025) introduces targeted, forward-thinking improvements to support more agile and AI-aware privacy strategies. Highlights include:

✅ A Realignment with CSF 2.0

To ensure tighter integration with cybersecurity programs, the framework has been restructured to mirror the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0, enabling joint implementation and governance efforts.

✅ Dedicated Guidance on AI Privacy Risks

With AI systems making decisions about individuals (and sometimes entire communities), Section 1.2.2 focuses on how AI can create privacy risks through data misuse, inferences, or synthetic data. It offers practical controls for mitigating AI-specific threats to privacy.

✅ Streamlined Structure for Usability

The framework now emphasizes outcome-based management, making it easier for organizations to develop internal and community profiles, benchmark capabilities, and prioritize investments.

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🛠 The Framework in Action: Core Components

The power of the NIST Privacy Framework lies in its three-part structure:

1. Core: What Should We Be Doing?

At the heart of the framework is a set of Functions, Categories, and Subcategories that represent activities and outcomes needed to manage privacy risk.

The five Functions:

• Identify-P: Understand what data you have and how it's processed
• Govern-P: Define your privacy policies, roles, and responsibilities
• Control-P: Give stakeholders the ability to manage data
• Communicate-P: Ensure transparency and data processing awareness
• Protect-P: Secure data from unauthorized access or use

Each Function maps to tangible, measurable outcomes that span technical, policy, and organizational domains.

2. Profiles: What’s Our Target?

Profiles help tailor the framework to your organization’s unique context—mission, role in the data ecosystem, sector, or user base.

Use Profiles to:

• Compare current vs. target state
• Align privacy activities with business strategy
• Benchmark maturity across teams or vendors

3. Tiers: How Mature Are We?

The four Tiers (Partial, Risk Informed, Repeatable, Adaptive) offer a lens for evaluating how well your privacy risk management is embedded, resourced, and repeatable.

This is especially useful when making the case for investment to executive leadership—or when aligning expectations across business partners.

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🤖 Managing Privacy in the Age of AI

AI isn’t just a technology shift—it’s a privacy paradigm shift.

NIST 1.1 gives organizations a much-needed framework to:

• Detect and mitigate AI-specific privacy threats, like reidentification, inference attacks, and bias
• Apply technical controls, such as differential privacy, synthetic data generation, and disassociability
• Promote ethical AI design, aligned with organizational values and societal norms

It also encourages organizations to use the Privacy Framework alongside the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, promoting a coordinated, interdisciplinary approach.

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🧩 Integration Is the Real Innovation

Perhaps the most powerful message in this update is this:

Privacy, cybersecurity, AI, and enterprise risk must converge.

Too often, these domains operate in silos—leaving organizations vulnerable to misalignment, inefficiency, and reputational damage. The updated Privacy Framework encourages horizontal integration, helping organizations move from reactive compliance to proactive resilience.

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🧭 How to Get Started (or Go Deeper)

📌 Download and review the draft: NIST.CSWP.40.ipd

📌 Participate in the public comment process before June 13, 2025

📌 Map your existing privacy program to the Core—identify gaps and strengths

📌 Use Profiles and Tiers to prioritize improvements and communicate progress

📌 Train your cross-functional teams—privacy isn’t just for legal or IT

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💬 Final Thought: Trust Is the Strategy

In today’s environment, data is a competitive asset—but privacy is a trust asset.

The organizations that will win the future aren’t those with the most data, but those who manage it with purpose, ethics, and precision.

The NIST Privacy Framework 1.1 isn’t just a technical document. It’s a blueprint for building a future-proof privacy posture, rooted in risk awareness, stakeholder alignment, and societal values.

Let’s not just comply with privacy expectations. Let’s lead with them.

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Charles Hale Founder & Managing Director, Hale Consulting Solutions

🔐 Guiding healthcare & cybersecurity leaders through transformation with trust