With how much data companies collect about consumers, data privacy is a big concern for businesses. When 90% of Americans say online privacy is an important concern, you can’t cut corners when storing customer information.
You must take customer data privacy seriously if you want to stay out of trouble and keep customers happy. Keep reading to learn what you need to know about customer data protection.
Lock Down Data Access
The last thing you want in your business is for every team member to have access to every file. You may be able to trust the people on your team — but there’s no way to guarantee that they will stay safe and not end up with compromised computers in the future.
The only people who should have access to customer data are those who need it to work. Put control systems in place to control access to prevent unauthorized users from viewing data.
Only Collect Essential Information
One of the keys to consumer privacy is limiting data where possible. The amount of information exposed to attackers gets companies in trouble when they suffer data breaches.
This happens because companies and websites collect too much information. They monitor everything their customers do and store data irrelevant to what they need to operate. Limit the potential damage from attacks by minimizing the information you collect — only store the data your company needs to function.
Use Multi-Factor Authentication
You shouldn’t only use passwords to protect consumer data. Although passwords do a great job of limiting access, it’s not uncommon for them to get compromised and lead to unauthorized access.
Add an extra layer of security by using two-factor authentication for any business system with access to customer data. These authentication systems will send another code to a user’s personal device or messaging account.
Without this code, you can’t access a system with customer data — even if you have the password for the account.
Vet Your Vendors
The chances are that your company works with third parties to handle customer data. This can be payment processing companies for handling financial information or analytics companies for gaining insights about your customers.
The vendors you work with also need to do the work to take consumer privacy seriously. Most reputable companies will, but you can never be too careful about security.
Invest in vendor security assessments to make sure the companies you work with are trustworthy. They should have no problem helping you understand their security procedures and how they keep your data safe.
Take Customer Data Privacy Seriously
In a world where cyber threats are continuing to grow, you have more to worry about when it comes to security. You’re storing sensitive data about your customers, so you must do everything possible to protect personal information.
Luckily, there are things you can do to take customer data privacy more seriously. Put the tactics above into place today to make sure your company complies with data privacy laws and safeguards your business against hackers.
Are you looking for more advice for optimizing your company’s tech infrastructure? Learn more by reading the other tech posts on the blog.
