Covid-19 has accelerated digital transformation for businesses worldwide at an unimaginable speed. So, companies started embracing services like contact-less payment, click-and-collect software, and improved customer relationship management in an effort to survive and resume operations safely in the organization. All these changes are necessary for a business to grow but each of these transitions brings new dangers too. Every company that moves operations online faces potential privacy issues that may be disastrous if not handled properly. Hence, it becomes important to recognize the importance of Data privacy and apply them to online platforms accordingly.

What is Data Privacy?

A part of security that focuses on personal information is termed as data privacy, also known as information privacy.

How data is gathered, shared, and used is governed by data privacy.

Data Privacy is concerned with the proper handling of private information, including financial and intellectual property data.

The Components of Data Privacy:

  • Protecting Passwords: Users should follow certain guidelines and best practices for managing and protecting passwords on online sites.
  • Data Risk Management: Companies control the collection, filing, modification, and handling of their data from the point of creation till retirement in order to lower data risk.
  • Data Loss Prevention: Identifying confidential data, tracking it across the company, and developing and enforcing policies to avoid unauthorized disclosure of personal data are all parts of the data loss prevention (DLP) process.
  1. For preventing Data Breach: The foremost important factor of opting in data privacy is to prevent Data Breach. For Example; unauthorized use on the website and social media platforms.
  • To Build Trust: Building trust with your customers becomes a lot easier if your privacy policy is clear, transparent, and easily accessible.
  • Risks & Legal Requirements: To make sure your privacy policy is comprehensive and correct, it’s critical to understand the types of data your website or applications gather, how they’re utilized, and the laws that apply to your business.

Ways to mitigate privacy risk:

  • Bring Clarity in your Privacy Policies – The most important step to mitigate risk is to bring clarity to the data privacy policies so that customers can understand and trust the company.
  • Pay Attention to How Your Partners and Vendors Use your Customer Data – When third-party vendors promise “plug-and-play” solutions to a variety of digital transformation difficulties, businesses may be enticed to sign contracts with them right away. Hence while making contracts with them the companies should pay attention that how they collect and use “customer data”.
  • Impact analyses should be carried out while processing data to monitor risk – Implementing fundamental risk assessments for data activities may be time-consuming, but it compels companies to consider carefully before taking a potentially disastrous action on matters such as data storage, subcontracting, and more in an era of rapid change.

Reference: https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-privacy/