How to Protect the Personal Data That Goes Into Your Digital Business

We live in a time where it’s hard to go for more than a couple of days without hearing a news story about data breaches or hacks that expose millions of personal records to cybercriminals. People are searching for ways to protect their information online.

It is essential to know how to safeguard personal data in your digital business in order to meet your legal obligations, as well as to ensure the privacy of your customers. Here are a few tips to assist.

1. Identify Personal Data

Personal data, as defined in laws on data protection, refers to any information which identifies an individual or is used to identify an individual. In the digital world that could include many things ranging from names to email addresses to biometric information. However, a lot of data that is private can be omitted from the personal data scope subject to certain circumstances. For instance, if an organization gathers data about a wide range of people and asks them to state their occupations it is not personal data since it can’t be used to identify a single person.

Many organizations are legally required to limit the amount personal information that they collect. This is generally an excellent thing since it decreases the chance of an incident involving data. In addition, many lawful data protection regulations require an increased level of security for sensitive personal information as compared to normal personal data. This is due to the fact that a breach of security could result in more negative consequences for the person who is Full Report affected.