Privacy and Data Security Reports Continued Their Climb

Privacy and Information Security has become one of the fastest-growing issue categories in the dataset, nearly doubling its share over seven years. In 2025, the category hit a new high — likely driven by expanding state privacy legislation and growing employee awareness of AI-related data handling concerns. Organizations without a clear intake pathway for this category may be underreporting it. The full figures are in the report.

See the full breakdown in the report.

Compliance & Regulatory Reports Are Now a Top-Three Issue Category

For most of this benchmark's history, Compliance, Regulatory, COI, and Legal reports were a mid-tier category. In 2025, they reached levels that would have been difficult to predict just three years ago. The growth is consistent and unbroken — and it's accelerating. This category's expansion is reshaping the case mix compliance teams are managing, and it has downstream effects on case closure times, follow-up rates, and substantiation. The numbers are inside.

See the full breakdown in the report.

Case Closure Times Ticked Up - After Years of Holding Steady

Ethico clients have historically closed cases faster than the industry status quo — and that advantage held in 2025. But the data shows the average days-to-close edged upward for the first time in several years, and the share of cases resolved in 30 days or fewer dipped from its recent peak. The likely explanation isn't operational — it's structural. As the case mix shifts toward more complex regulatory and compliance issues, resolution timelines naturally extend. The report includes a full breakdown by case type and duration bucket.

See the full breakdown in the report.