We live in a time where it’s impossible to go more than a few days without seeing a news story about data breaches and hacks that expose millions of personal information to cybercriminals. People are looking for ways to safeguard their data online.
It is essential to know how to safeguard personal data in your online business to meet your legal obligations, as well as to safeguard the privacy of your customers. Here are some helpful tips to help you do so.
1. Identify Personal Data
According to the laws protecting data, personal data is any information that can be used to identify or be used to identify an individual. In the digital age it can be an array of things ranging from names to email addresses to biometric information. However, many information that might be personal is not included in the personal data scope subject to certain circumstances. For example if an organization collects various kinds of data about individuals and they’re asked to identify their profession it’s probably not personal data because it can’t be used to identify a single person.
Many companies are legally required to limit the amount personal information they collect. This is usually a positive thing, as it reduces the chances of a data breach. In addition, many lawful data protection regulations require a higher level security for sensitive personal information as compared to normal personal data. This is due to the fact that it can have more damaging or detrimental consequences for data subjects should a breach happen.