Data privacy involves safeguarding personal and confidential information — such as passwords, medical records, financial information, and email addresses — from unwanted access, disclosure, or misuse. It’s more than just a legal concept; it’s an integral part of how companies handle sensitive information, and it can be the difference between winning and losing a client’s trust or suffering damage to your reputation.
With more than 80% of people saying they would stop doing business with a company that suffered a security breach, it’s important to make data privacy a priority for both businesses and their clients. However, with technological advancements outpacing regulations and a lack of awareness among employees and consumers, there are several key challenges to establishing and maintaining data privacy best practices.
Understanding what data a company has, how it’s being used, and where it’s stored is the first step to protecting it. Companies should develop an inventory of all information assets and implement classification systems that determine levels of sensitivity, compliance needs, and other factors to establish proper access controls and policies. In addition, organizations should consider multi-factor authentication (MFA) to ensure only authorized individuals have access to sensitive information.
Finally, a company should also have backup and disaster recovery systems in place to ensure that if the infrastructure is compromised – due to a natural disaster, system failure, or cyberattack – critical information can be restored to its original state. The repercussions of sensitive data being compromised can be profound and lasting for organizations, jeopardizing intellectual property, diminishing competitive edge, and tarnishing brand image.