Data is one of the most valuable assets in today’s business economy. It powers a host of services including personalized customer experiences, automated marketing messaging and science-driven insights. But collecting, sharing and analyzing so much personal data can come with serious risks to users’ privacy. This is a major concern for both consumers and legislators.
In a general sense, data privacy is about the control process around when and how information is shared with third parties or retained by a company. It also focuses on the integrity of the data such as ensuring that it is accurate and consistent.
A data privacy program should have the following key elements:
Transparency: It is important for companies to be transparent about how their data is used. This includes being able to explain to customers and other stakeholders what is being collected, why it is being collected and how the data will be utilized. It is a good idea to provide this information as part of a data policy or as a separate document.
Access control: Providing only authorized people with access to the information is an essential element of privacy. This can be done through implementing authentication and authorization processes such as multi-factor authentication, which verifies an individual’s identity by requiring them to use something they know (e.g. a password), something they have (like a security token) or something they are (e.g. a fingerprint).
Legal requirements: Privacy regulations like the GDPR, CCPA and HIPAA all require data protection functions to be in place. In addition, businesses should ensure they complete due diligence before expanding into new regions in order to make sure they comply with local laws.
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