Respecting the privacy of your customers, staff, and all other stakeholders is critical for inspiring trust and enhancing reputation.
According to the Pew Research Center, 79% of adults report being concerned about the way their data is being used by companies. By being open about how you use data and respecting privacy, you can earn customer trust and stand out from your competition.
How To Prioritize Data Privacy With Your Customers
The US National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) recommends adopting the following market leading practices:
- Be transparent about how you collect, use, and share consumers’ personal information.
- Think about how the consumer may expect their data to be used.
- Design settings to protect their information by default.
- Communicate clearly and concisely to the public what privacy means to your organization, as well as the steps you take to achieve and maintain privacy.
How To Prioritize Data Privacy With Your Employees
Additionally, you can also focus on upskilling your employees in the following ways:
Start Raising Awareness
A privacy awareness campaign can empower your employees to make the best cybersecurity choices.
Share messages about privacy in places employees will see them: on internal social media, around the office, on employee intranet portals, in company newsletters, and emails.
Use our resources or look for other resources online. You shouldn’t have to start from scratch, and there are a lot of materials available for free, especially leading up to Data Privacy Week in January.
Organize privacy training
Privacy is moving quickly. New legislation and regulations are always in the works, and your business doesn’t stand still either.
You may be launching a new product in a country or state that has privacy laws you’ll need to comply with. Find privacy training that fits your culture.
There are many providers and while the meat of the message is largely similar, the way it’s delivered varies. It’s a question of style and tone: do you want friendly and animated, or a more buttoned-down e-learning course?
Pick what’s right for your organization, not just in terms of covering all the facts, but culturally as well. That way the training is more likely stick and give you the ROI you’re looking for.
Add privacy to the employee toolbox
Make it easier to prioritize privacy. Provide your employees with the tools they can use to improve their privacy, such as company-branded camera covers, privacy screens for their devices, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to secure their connections, or password management software.
Many of these tools will cost the company money, but the peace of mind is well worth it. And the costs pale in comparison to dealing with an incident or breach.
Engage the experts
Remember that most employees aren’t privacy or security experts. You will need to build in mechanisms that make it easy for them to report privacy and security concerns to your experts. Just like tools for preventing privacy incidents are critical, tools that easily empower employees to report are necessary in your company’s privacy toolbox, too.
Outsourcing to professional cybersecurity companies takes a load off your plate and ensures you have the data protection you deserve.
Become a Data Privacy Champion
Another way to differentiate yourself within your market is by becoming a Data Privacy Week Champion.
Data Privacy Week began as Data Privacy Day in the United States and Canada in January 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day celebration in Europe. The National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA), a leading nonprofit, public-private partnership promoting cybersecurity and privacy education and awareness, leads the effort each year.
The NCA is a non-profit organization on a mission to create a more secure, interconnected world. They advocate for the safe use of all technology and educate everyone on how best to protect themselves, their families, and their organizations from cybercrime. They also create strong partnerships between governments and corporations to ensure cybersecurity for all.
For more information about Data Privacy Week and how to get involved, visit https://staysafeonline.org/programs/data-privacy-week/.
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