Protecting your business and Reputation
In today’s digital world, businesses are gathering and storing huge amounts of personal information from customers, employees, and partners. However, this wealth of data also brings significant risks if not managed properly. A privacy program is essential for organizations to ensure they handle sensitive information responsibly and comply with relevant laws and regulations.
What is a Privacy Program?
A privacy program is a structured approach to managing personal information throughout its lifecycle, from collection to disposal. It involves assessing, implementing, and monitoring controls to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access, misuse, or breaches.
Conducting a Personal Information Inventory
The first step in establishing a robust privacy program is to create an inventory of all personally identifiable information (PII) handled by your organization. This includes any sensitive information that can be used to identify individuals, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and financial data.
Partnering with Information Security Programs
Interestingly, conducting a personal information inventory overlaps significantly with creating an inventory of sensitive information for information security programs. By including a personal information tag in the broader sensitive information inventory, you can avoid redundant efforts and foster collaboration between your privacy and security teams.
Conducting a Privacy Assessment
With your PII inventory in place, it’s time to assess your current privacy practices using a standard framework, such as ISO 27701 or the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. This assessment will help identify gaps between your existing practices and the desired level of control required by the chosen standard.
Implementing Privacy Controls
The findings from your privacy assessment should guide you in implementing technical or administrative measures to remediate identified deficiencies. Examples of common privacy controls include:
- Creating, reviewing, or modifying privacy policies
- Using encryption to protect personal information
- Purging personal data when no longer needed
- Configuring access controls to authorized personnel
- Ongoing Operation and Monitoring
Once your privacy program is established, it’s essential to continue operating and monitoring its effectiveness. Regular reviews, updates to the privacy assessment, and dashboard-style monitoring of key metrics will help ensure compliance with data retention standards, turnaround times for processing requests, and incident management.
The Benefits of a Privacy Program
By implementing a robust privacy program, your organization can:
- Protect sensitive information from unauthorized access or misuse
- Enhance trust among customers, employees, and partners
- Comply with relevant laws and regulations
- Reduce the risk of costly data breaches and reputational damage
Developing a comprehensive privacy program is crucial for businesses to safeguard personal information and maintain a positive reputation in today’s digital landscape. By following these steps – conducting a PII inventory, assessing your current practices, implementing privacy controls, and ongoing operation and monitoring – you can ensure that your organization handles sensitive data responsibly and in compliance with relevant laws and regulations.