Preserving your customer’s confidentiality

Customers trust businesses with a lot of personal information and it is the business’ responsibility to maintain confidentiality. Businesses should take relevant precautions to ensure that the privacy and personal information of their customers is not compromised.

• Encrypting the information you receive from customers: There are programs available which encrypt information that customers send to you over the internet. These scramble the data so that it is indecipherable to anyone trying to read the information.
• Create employee log-ins: Create log-ins for each employee for company computers. Screening each employee before they are given access to a log-in for any of the databases is necessary. Creating passwords for protected files that only the relevant employees have access to will add another layer of security.
• Keep your sensitive files in a different location: Avoid keeping particularly sensitive files on the same network as all other files. These files should instead be kept on a separate computer and limited employees should have access to it, if not any.
• Separate groups of customers: Separating databases will prevent loss of all customer data if there is a breach of security.
• Confidentiality agreements for employees: If the information you store is particularly sensitive or high profile, ask employees to sign confidentiality agreements. This increases their accountability as they run the risk of a lawsuit if they give out confidential information.