Privacy law can have a profound effect on your business if you’re not careful to adhere to the appropriate rules and regulations. There are many facets of privacy laws as well, and our discussion here will focus on those which specifically relate most commonly to businesses. Privacy matters. Your customers, clients and employees alike must trust you in order for your business to enjoy sustained success. If you run the sort of business which will take as much care with others’ personal data as you would with your own, then you are a business to be trusted.
Consumer Privacy
Part of the key to developing trust and a strong rapport through caring after your customers’ private data is communicating with those customers. Will you use their email addresses to send marketing and sales campaign messages from time to time? Are any of your affiliates allowed to use that information? Questions such as these ought to be answered in a privacy policy.
The term privacy policy can seem a bit vague. After all, there are privacy policies for consumers and for employees. The reason is that you may wish to use data differently for each group…but at the core, both are meant to communicate your intentions and the protection you offer for their personal data. If you don’t have a privacy policy (or policies), now is a great time to create one.
Credit Reporting
When it comes to credit reporting and financial data, you must be very cautious. The privacy laws that may apply to your business will not only touch on protecting consumers’ contact information but also their identity information. Identity theft is a very real concern in today’s business and financial sectors. According to the Bureau of Justice, between 2005 and 2010, 8.6 million (7.0%) of American households experienced identity theft victimization.
Data Security
Like consumer privacy, the critical feature here is transparency and treating others’ information as though it were your own. Data security isn’t a place to look for the lowest cost in the short run. Even very large companies with advanced data security systems have breaches from time to time, and doing so leaves them vulnerable to legal action if they don’t have the proper mitigative measures in place.