The loss of confidence from your customers, severe fines from your e-commerce platforms like Google and Pinterest, and the deletion of content from your content management system are just some of the dire outcomes of a breach business privacy. You might go from having the most authoritative site in your field to completely disappearing from people’s searches. You’ve spent time and effort developing pillar pages and topic clusters for your blog, and now imagine that all that effort has been wasted because of cyber criminals.
Because hackers are drawn to easy targets, you need to be cautious about more than simply financial data, government ID numbers, and medical records. Therefore, having a customer data privacy policy and adhering to it is one of the greatest methods to keep your business safe from cybercriminals.
Dozens of suggestions to keep your customer’s data’s privacy safe:
1. Be aware of the data of the information you are collecting and store it in a secure location in business privacy.
This is common sense. However…the adage does hold water in this case: common sense should be more widespread. You can’t protect anything safe if you have no idea it exists or where it is hide. To begin with, it would be difficult to return someone else’s lost property if you had no idea where it came from or whose it was. If your company is aware of the origins of its data, it will be responsible for determining which data regulations it must follow.
Don’t collect track of the random memorabilia you’ve been holding on to for years. Does your organization require higher-ups’ sign-off before collecting further data? If so, does everyone at the company know about it? Do records need to be kept for the “approval process” to occur? In what ways are data backups managed?
What about the “external parties”? What about the easy SaaS products that someone in your company has acquired with a credit card (with or without the knowledge of your IT department)? Is there a log of the information you’ve sent them? How limits place on data transfers? Do you have or send out to clients customer data spreadsheets that can find in several places?
2. Using Secure By Design to Protect Individual Privacy
Make it a regular component of your system’s or product’s development process to analyze potential privacy issues. A PIA should be conducted whenever a new system or product is developed, updated, or retired to ensure the possible effects on users’ privacy. It needs to specify the most current security standards that must implement to keep the information safe. It needs to determine what kinds of data can store. The maximum allowable data set should be specified in your PIA. If more data access controls require, they should uncovere.
Include a review of the PIA by an individual familiar with the agreements and Data Processing Addendums your business has signed with its customers. Have you guaranteed that the information of a certain client would remain within a certain territory? Have you committed to a client that you will always seek their approval before hiring a subcontractor?
In your PIA, you should follow whether or not implementing the updated system/product/service subjects your company to any new rules.
3. Gather only the most pertinent data
Be sure to state in your policy that you will only keep the minimum amount of customer information necessary. Don’t ask for specifics if you’re not going to use them.
It’s not uncommon for firms to suffer security breaches. Because of this, it’s important to separate the data you need to keep (such as names and addresses) from the information you can safely ignore (like credit card numbers).
Having information that enables processing credit card payments by a third party is often a safer option business privacy. Many people have come to rely on online payment services like PayPal, Stripe, and Square. They prioritize the implementation of comprehensive security measures to protect all confidential data.
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You may get a lot of information from the forms on your website, and you should think about it all. Websites like landing pages, newsletter signup forms, and account setup forms are examples of these kinds of forms.
For argument’s sake, imagine you’ve been in the online bookshop business for a while. As you’ve observed, you rarely contact customers via their mobile phones. You can disregard providing the couriers with a phone number because all your products are digital. In this case, collecting this information is pointless.
Your email marketing efforts will benefit greatly from database segmentation. Your customers can categorize in various ways, such as by the products they’ve purchase, the dates they’ve contacted, and their place in the sales funnel. You can limit the information of personally identifiable information you collect from customers if you use data on their purchases and browsing habits to create distinct groups of them.
4. On a consistent basis, Check the info you’re keeping on hand.
To be sure of what information is being collected and stored, do you ever look over API parameters, log details, databases, etc.? The company database is an important business. Regular audits are necessary because so many people may have access to the data. You can see if the proper procedures were followed while handling sensitive customer data by conducting an audit.
In addition, keeping track of who has accessed the data, when, and any modifications made can aid users in meeting the data of numerous regulations governing the handling of personal information.
To rephrase, an audit of a company’s databases is a method of gauging how well the company ensures the privacy of its customers’ database. That’s vital because applicable laws and regulations often undergo rapid changes.
You can use Microsoft SQL Server to monitor database system activity if you’re using Windows business privacy. SQL Server Audit is a tool developed by Microsoft that monitors database information by reviewing transaction logs and keeping track of what data and objects have been modified and when. By using this instrument, DBAs can look into any unusual database activity. Multiple tiers of auditing, including those at the server and database levels, are possible with its help.
5. Be open and honest about your privacy practices.
A valid and up-to-date privacy policy that satisfies the privacy requirements of both your business country and any foreign country in which your business operates is essential business privacy. The website’s policy should be easy and simple to find. A typical location for this policy is in the website’s footer, with other legal disclaimers and contact information. Take a look at this snapshot I took of the bottom of ConcreteCMS.com, which features a link to their privacy statement:
If your company gathers, transmits, or keeps customer data, it should ALSO have a privacy policy to protect that information.
To meet the needs of new privacy rules and ensure that their policy is easily understood, several businesses have “legal” and “common language” sections (or even distinct versions) of their approach. You may read a wonderful piece about how Privacy Policies have become increasingly complex and difficult to understand at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/12/opinion/facebook-google-privacy-policies.html. Your company’s privacy policy must detail the practices in which information is collected and utilized by your information online, as well as the options available to customers. Among other things, it should explain to customers how their information is safeguarded and stored and who has access to it. Provide as much information as possible.
In addition to the preceding, a privacy policy should additionally cover the following:
- Who do you tell about the information?
- Whom do you utilize for data security?
- The Tools You Rely On
- The depth of encryption
- What kind of cloud or hard drive is being used
- Procedures in place should a security breach occur at your company
If your customers have concerns about how you’re handling their personal information, allow them an opportunity to voice those concerns. Upon a customer’s request for deletion, you must, in many countries, remove any associated data. Make it clear that they can reach out to the company with questions or complaints.
You should include a link to JAMS’ website, https://www.jamsadr.com, in your privacy policy if you conduct business in the United States or the European Union.
Companies should be able to handle a deluge of disgruntled customers if they walk the walk of their privacy policy.
6. Encrypt stored and transmitted data
When information is encrypted, it is encoded to be unreadable without the correct password. Complex algorithms are used in encryption software to transform plain text into an unreadable format. A password require for any recipient who wants to read the encrypted message.
In reality, only 22% of SMBs encrypt their data at rest. The odds of attackers targeting encrypted data are lower. Therefore this finding comes as a surprise.
Your PC, server, and network data can all store with encryption. One can encrypt anything from a single file to an entire hard drive, a USB flash drive, or even cloud-stored data storage. An administrator may quickly configure encryption and set a password on most devices.
Explaination
It is just as important to encrypt data at the point of collection as it is to do so at rest in a database. Use services like Let’s Encrypt to generate HTTPS certificates for your website. Data sent between the user’s device and the website is encrypted and protected using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), an internet communication protocol.
Is there an annual assessment of your business’s cryptography policy to make adherence to best practices? Do the key sizes for your certificates exceed or equal 2048 bits? Is ALL data transmitted using TLS 1.2 or above, or does your business employ a vulnerable protocol? Do your password hashing algorithms have sufficient cost factors to withstand recent attacks? Do your cyphers use keys longer than 256 bits?
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To protect your customers’ personal information while it is transmit, encrypt it properly. Stored and reliable hosting information require for any financial data protection. You may choose to host the news on your servers, or your payment processor may do so.
Email encryption helps prevent hackers from reading sensitive correspondence. Several Gmail extensions, such as FlowCrypt Gmail Encryption and DocuSign, provide further encryption for sent and received emails and files. While most email service providers encrypt user data as standard, it is always a good idea to use additional security measures.
Remember that even if someone were to steal or misplace your data, they wouldn’t be able to decipher it if it was encrypted.
7. Never keep business privacy improving your software.
Please ensure that all your staff and independent contractors’ devices are up to date.
A simple way to defend your business’s network against cyberattacks is to ensure that all your devices are running the most recent software. Keeping your devices safe also safeguards your company.
Hackers are always developing new techniques for stealing data. Software makers release updates frequently to counteract unknown risks as they emerge. Fixed security flaws in the software include in these updates. Security flaws can patch in software, making your data safe from spies.
When it’s not busy, businesses frequently put off updates. That’s a bad idea. It’s risky to put your business at risk of losing confidential information because you forgot to update or waited too long to do so.
Get in the habit of regularly updating your software. Doing so, every business will turn it into a routine. Inform your staff of the value of keeping their software up to date. The efforts of its employees enhance the safety of your company. Even better, centrally control your company’s machines and deliver updates to them.
Be sure to keep your servers regularly business privacy.
To protect your business safe from software flaws and exploits, you need to subscribe to services like US-Cert and always use the most recent patches. Many people count on their cloud or SaaS solution provider to keep them current, but things are more complex. Make sure you clearly understand your role and theirs as your IaaS, PaaS, and/or SaaS provider. Figure out in detail what information relies on your constant attention.
8. Keep your customers informed about any customer data policy modifications
Customers are generally reluctant to provide brands with personally identifying information. The biggest issue is that you need to figure out what will happen to the data. That’s why keeping customers in the loop about any updates to your company’s policy regarding their personal information is important.
Privacy laws often necessitate that you explain to customers how you plan to use their information. VoIP phone services offered by couriers may require disclosing customer contact information. So, if you’re switching up your courier service, be sure to let your customers know and detail how the switch will alter the information their data is handled.
Keep your data and social media posts short and sweet, avoid using buzzwords and sales pitches, and stick to the point when communicating with clients about how you handle their emails. In this case, the goal of the message is information dissemination rather than product promotion.
When Panasonic updated its privacy policy, for instance, the company sent the following email:
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Make sure always to keep your customers updated on the data usage. To gain your client’s trust, you must be transparent and open.
9. Limit of Data Access
Data access improves when fewer people can view it. In other words, this is the “Principle of Least Privilege.” The scope of data access should be specified in your data policy’s privacy provisions.
Secure your clients’ private information by limiting access to it to those who need it. Periodic access evaluations highly recommend. Collecting a new system that collects data requires a procedure by which to add it to a Systems List and fill out the Access by Role. Who will be in charge of the system and have access to its Access by Role settings?
10. Educate Your team in business privacy
You should train employees with data access in sensitive data handling. Threats need to be obvious to them.
Make sure your team understands the distinction between anonymization and pseudonymization if they are collecting statistics.
The company’s employees should all be familiar with its policy on protecting the privacy of customers’ personal information. Train your information on the proper handling of confidential employees. Have precise rules so they may carefully follow every step to ensure the data is not expose.
Teach your staff how to spot phishing emails and keep sensitive information safe. Since hackers always improve their techniques, it’s imperative that businesses consistently update their employees on the latest cyber security measures.
11. Regularly examine your data systems in business privacy
If you care about the safety of the data your company stores, you should keep data security tests at least once or twice a year.
Cybercriminals will target your online business if you operate one. Sensitive information of the sort trade serves as bait.
Pen testing is something to consider if you want to safely protect your online store. Penetration testing helps to identify your system vulnerabilities. E-commerce functional modules are the focus of the testing, which can locate design, mobile payment, and integration concerns unique to the website.
The most important takeaway from this point forward is this: if you don’t remember the holes in your business, someone else will. It only makes sense to fix the problems you find.
12. Protect mobile devices from potential security threats.
Using a mobile device, such as a smartphone, tablet, or laptop, allows greater freedom for a user. They can introduce new dangers to the source. A third party could access information on a lost mobile device, which could negatively affect your company or its customers.
To protect your customer data privacy, emphasize the importance of keeping mobile devices secure among your employees. Make sure everyone knows how important it is to report a theft or loss as soon as possible so the company can respond and put data in place to ensure a data breach.
Prevent mobile devices from compromise installing controls.So Have standards for what company systems/services specific mobile devices allow to connect to. Common measures include:
- Requiring a virtual private network (VPN) connection.
- Using public key infrastructure (PKI) encryption to get to production.
- Using a multi-factor authenticator (MFA) that isn’t tied to a mobile device (like Yubikey).
- Using a tool to restrict what can allowed on a device.
Summary business privacy
Getting customer data privacy properly for your business privacy can only generate great outcomes. Even if there isn’t explicit legislation requiring their data to be handled in a specific way, customers expect their information to be handled safely and be used solely for the reason they entrusted it to you.
To protect the privacy of your data information, your business should do the following.
- Extracting only the most crucial details.
- I am possessing a trustworthy policy for user privacy.
- Keep your customers informed.
- Limit restrictions on who can access the database and audit regular audits.
- Keep sensitive information secret by encrypting it.
- Be sure to keep the software regularly.
- It is important to conduct data system tests regularly.
Lastly, ensure you prevent security concerns in mobile devices in case of loss or theft of a machine.
To avoid being an easy target for cybercriminals, keeping yourself, your employees, and your customers aware is important.So Customers put their faith in you when they share their information with you. Make every effort to ensure the data fall into the wrong hands.
David Campbell is a digital marketing professional with Ramp Ventures. At Right Inbox, he is a manager of the content marketing team. He enjoys exploring new places and actively works on his Spanish in his spare time.
