Mlambo, Tlangelani PZuva, T2026-10-052026-10-052026-092367-33702367-3389http://hdl.handle.net/10204/14963Data breeches are eroding trust in institutions, despite regulations such as the “GDPR” and “POPIA”. Principles of governance, including accountability, transparencies and ethical leadership have been heralded as essential to prevent breaches and regain trust, although their specific contributions remain poorly understood. This research adopted a systematic review based on the PRISMA 2020 guidelines to explore peer-reviewed literature published between 2020 and 2025. The review consisted of reports sourced from Google Scholar, IEEE, Springer and Sage that covered governance into privacy and security and comprehensive service provision. Only peer reviewed articles in the English language were included, and technical only papers were excluded. The review looked at governance methods, breach situations, trust-building strategies, and differences between regions, with quality checked using CASP and AMSTAR 2 tools. Results show that flexible governance frameworks that use privacy-by-design, involve stakeholders, and include ESG principles are most effective for reducing breaches and restoring trust. The review suggests that governance should go beyond just following rules and should include ethical leadership and adaptable methods to strengthen institutions and support responsible digital change. The study reviewed 100 articles from 2020 to 2025 and selected 25 for detailed analysis across different industries. Future research could look at articles beyond 2025 and examine which governance factors are most often studied.AbstractenGovernancePrivacy breachesTrust restorationData protectionPRISMAArticleN/A