These days, ‘privacy’ is a very big word. Now that we are all online, we want to guarantee that our personal data and information is effectively protected from security breaches. Companies are now finding that looking after their customer’s privacy can greatly help them establish a trusting relationship, which is one of the best ways of attracting new business. Here are some very important steps that all companies need to take if they want to keep their customers’ privacy seriously.
Conduct An Audit
It is now possible for companies to carry out a privacy audit to see how they can improve their current privacy and security features as well as seeing which new processes can be put in place. For some businesses, especially the ones that handle health and legal data, this might be a legal obligation. If you aren’t legally obliged to carry out this kind of audit for your company, it is still very much worth doing as it can help gain your customers’ trust.
Store Your Paper Documents Correctly
The majority of documents and contracts can be stored online using new technology such as the cloud. These online methods of storage are often highly secure and easily accessible by employers. However, every company will still have hard copies of many contracts. It can be risky storing these in your office, as the data could be lost during a burglary or a fire. For this reason, quite a few companies choose to look into office records storage solutions. One popular choice is to store documents with a storage firm who have excellent security facilities.
Don’t Retain Data For The Sake Of It
You will need to sometimes collect data from customers so that you can carry out various projects and jobs. Once you have finished using this data and there is no longer any reason for you to retain it on your system, you should get rid of it. After all, what you don’t have can’t hurt you! Once you have deleted this data that you no longer need, you won’t have to worry about losing it to hackers or ransomware attacks.
Publish A Privacy Policy
Did you know that you are legally obliged to post a privacy policy on your business’s website? If you don’t already have one on there, you need to publish one as soon as possible! You also need to make sure that this policy is visible on any apps that your company has. These policies are basically legal agreements between you and your customers, as they reassure your customers that you won’t misuse any of their data. If you are having trouble writing one up for your site, you will find lots of templates online.
Now that customers are taking their privacy very seriously, it is time that businesses stepped up to the plate and also got serious about it. As you can see, improving your current privacy processes won’t take too much effort, and once it’s done, you may find that you attract an even larger customer base!