Privacy Violation History

This question requires you to disclose if your company has broken any privacy laws or regulations in the past three years. It's like a background check for your privacy practices. Potential customers want to know if you've had run-ins with regulators like the FTC, received GDPR fines, or violated industry-specific privacy rules like HIPAA.

Transparency about past violations can actually build trust if handled correctly, showing you've learned and improved. Hiding violations that later surface will destroy deals and partnerships instantly. Clean records accelerate sales, while undisclosed violations can trigger contract terminations, damage your reputation permanently, and limit your ability to work with regulated industries.

The biggest mistake is lying or omitting violations thinking they won't be discovered—they always are during due diligence. Another pitfall is not understanding what constitutes a violation; even warning letters or corrective action requests count and should be disclosed with context about remediation.