| • | | encounter difficulties retaining key employees of the acquired company or integrating diverse software codes or business cultures; and |
| • | | become subject to adverse tax consequences, substantial depreciation, or deferred compensation charges. |
Any of these risks could adversely impact our business and operating results.
If we are not able to satisfy data protection, security, privacy, and other government- and industry-specific requirements, our growth could be harmed.
There are a number of data protection, security, privacy, and other government- and industry-specific requirements, including those that require companies to notify individuals of data security incidents involving certain types of personal data. Security compromises experienced by us or our service providers may lead to public disclosures, which could harm our reputation, erode customer confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures, negatively impact our ability to attract new customers, or cause existing customers to elect not to renew their subscriptions with us. In addition, some of the industries we serve have industry-specific requirements relating to compliance with certain security and regulatory standards, such as those required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. We also maintain compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which is critical to the financial services and insurance industries. As we expand into new verticals and regions, we will likely need to comply with these and other requirements to compete effectively. If we cannot comply or if we incur a violation in one or more of these requirements, our growth could be adversely impacted, and we could incur significant liability.
Privacy concerns and laws, or other domestic or foreign regulations, may reduce the effectiveness of our solution and adversely affect our business.
Our customers can use our solution to collect, use, and store personal or identifying information regarding their customers. National and local governments and agencies in the countries in which we operate and in which our customers operate have adopted, are considering adopting, or may adopt laws and regulations regarding the collection, use, storage, processing, and disclosure of information obtained from consumers and other individuals, which could impact our ability to offer our products and services in certain jurisdictions or our customers’ ability to deploy our solution globally. Laws and regulations relating to the collection, use, disclosure, security, and other processing of individuals’ information can vary significantly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and are particularly stringent in Europe. We also may be bound by contractual obligations and other obligations relating to privacy, data protection, and information security that are more stringent than applicable laws and regulations. The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, laws, regulations, standards, and other obligations relating to privacy, data protection, and information security are significant. In addition, some companies, particularly larger enterprises, often will not contract with vendors that do not meet these rigorous standards. Accordingly, our failure, or perceived inability, to comply with these laws, regulations, standards, and other obligations may limit the use and adoption of our solution, reduce overall demand for our solution, lead to regulatory investigations, litigation, and significant fines, penalties, or liabilities for actual or alleged noncompliance, or slow the pace at which we close sales transactions, any of which could harm our business. Moreover, if we or any of our employees or contractors fail or are believed to fail to adhere to appropriate practices regarding our customers’ data, it may damage our reputation and brand.
Additionally, we expect that existing laws, regulations, standards, and other obligations may be interpreted in new and differing manners in the future, and may be inconsistent among jurisdictions. Future laws, regulations, standards, and other obligations, and changes in the interpretation of existing laws, regulations, standards, and other obligations could result in increased regulation, increased costs of compliance and penalties fornon-compliance, and limitations on data collection, use, disclosure, and transfer for us and our customers. The European Union and United States agreed in 2016 to a framework for data transferred from the European Union to the United States, called the Privacy Shield, but this framework has been challenged by private parties
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