Data protection is crucial in establishing trust with consumers as the world of information becomes more interconnected. Customers expect their companies to safeguard and secure their personal information and companies that excel at this will have an advantage over those who don’t. This article explores ten key guidelines that every company should be aware of and implement to protect customer data.

The most basic type of customer data is personal information, which refers to any piece of data that can be used to directly identify a person. This includes names and telephone numbers. There are also more sensitive data types that could cause serious consequences in the event that they fall into wrong hands. For instance a Social Security Number or credit card number. Sensitive personal information (SPI) also includes racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, and many more.

SPI can be used to commit identity theft. This is a serious threat to the personal as well as financial security of customers. When hackers obtain this kind of data, they can use it to apply for credit cards or loans on behalf of the victim, which can leave them with devastating effects.

To lower the risk that data breaches can be a possibility, companies should limit how much SPI they collect, and only use the information to serve legitimate purposes. They should also use encryption on their servers as well as in transit to ensure that the data can’t be read by hackers. They should also utilize two-factor authentication and password management tools to limit the chance of data breaches due to compromised passwords.

next page