The number of estimated annual data compromises is going up every year, and in 2023, it stood at over 3,200 in the United States alone. Data privacy has become one of the major concerns, especially for large companies that process millions of pieces of customer data on a daily basis. If this is the way your company operates, too, you need a data privacy strategy that will allow you to protect your business from potential risks and threats of data breaches and leaks.
A good data privacy strategy should comprise seven crucial elements that enable your business to protect itself against multiple different disks. Let’s have a look at what needs to be considered:
Contents
How to build a data privacy culture in your business: 7 elements
LEADERSHIP COMMITMENT
Every strategy starts at the top. If you want your company to be resilient when it comes to diverse online threats, the leadership needs to show a commitment to data privacy. Of course, by commitment, we mean far more than just empty statements or corporate newsletters. The leadership should:
- Allocate necessary resources to ensure the data privacy strategy can be created and implemented without unnecessary delays
- Oversee the implementation of the strategy (there should be at least one C-suite executive who’s responsible for this area of your business)
- Create at least a small team (primarily made of the IT, HR, and legal department employees) that’s responsible for implementing the company’s data privacy strategy daily.
A COMPREHENSIVE TRAINING PROGRAM
Don’t assume that your team knows how to protect data; it is likely that many of your employees need the training to understand the data privacy best practices and how to implement them in their particular situations. Also, it is a good idea to tailor training to the needs of different departments. An IT expert will need different knowledge compared to a customer service agent.
In every scenario, your training program should discuss such elements as:
- Handling sensitive personal and financial data
- Obtaining consent from customers and vendors
- Recognizing phishing or cyberattack attempts
- Understanding and complying with regulatory requirements (e.g., in the European Union, all companies need to adhere to GDPR)
CLEAR PROCEDURES
Ambiguity is the last thing you want when it comes to your data privacy strategy. Don’t limit yourself just to general statements and advice. Your data privacy policy and related procedures need to be clear and specific, as tailored to your company’s profile as possible. Data privacy procedures should provide transparent dos and don’ts on how to handle, store, and share sensitive data. If possible, mention specific tools and actions that need to be taken at each stage.
On the other hand, it’s also vital not to overcomplicate things. If your procedures are too rigid and complicated, your employees will not adhere to them. It’s good to assign someone who will assess whether your procedures are relatively easy to implement in a daily work environment.
DATA MINIMIZATION
Many data privacy regulations recommend data minimization as a good approach to protecting data privacy, and your company should do the same. In short, data minimization is all about collecting only the information that’s necessary for business operations. So, for example, if you run an e-commerce business, you shouldn’t ask your customers about their marital status or earnings because this type of information is not relevant to your business and, therefore, shouldn’t be collected by it.
DIFFERENT ACCESS LEVELS
As an addition to data minimization, you should also implement different access levels to customer and financial data. Not every employee needs to know everything about the given customer to serve them effectively. The highest level of customer data access (where all the sensitive data is stored) should be limited only to people who know how to handle it and need it in their work.
REGULAR RISK ASSESSMENTS
Cybersecurity is one of the most dynamic aspects of the IT world. Now we’re losing more money to digital crime than we are to home burglary, according to this interview with Hari Ravichandran. New threats and malware software emerge every single month, and your company needs to stay on top of things and react to these new threats. That’s why it’s important to conduct regular (at least once every six months) risk assessments to identify potential vulnerabilities in data privacy practices and IT infrastructure.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Risk assessments are important, but they are just the first step. The second is CI – continuous improvement. Your company shouldn’t rest on its laurels. On the contrary, you should use the feedback gained from monitoring and risk assessment efforts to identify areas for improvement and implement them accordingly. This way, your company will always be up to date when it comes to data privacy.
Wrapping up
Don’t underestimate the importance of a good data privacy strategy in your business. Implement all those seven elements we mention in this article, and you will create a comprehensive data privacy culture. One more thing you can consider is to use data engineering services to streamline your efforts and implement even more advanced solutions.
