We live in a world where it’s hard to go more than one or two days without reading about hacks or data breaches that expose millions and billions of personal data to hackers. As a result, people are looking for ways to keep their data safe online.
It is crucial to understand how to protect personal data in your digital business to meet your legal obligations, and to protect the privacy of your customers. Here are a few tips to assist.
1. Identify Personal Data
As defined by data protection laws according to the law, personal data is information that identifies or can be used to identify an individual. In today’s digital age this could include anything from biometric data to email addresses. However, a lot of information that might be personal may be excluded from the scope of personal data when there are certain qualifying circumstances. For example when an organization collects various types of data on individuals and they’re all asked to identify their profession this is likely not personal information since it cannot be used to identify one particular person.
Many companies are required to limit the amount of personal information they collect, and it’s generally a good thing as it will reduce the chance of a breach. Additionally, the majority of lawful data protection regulations require a higher level security for sensitive personal data than standard personal data. This is due to the fact that it can cause more harm or negative effects on the data subject in the event of a data breach.