How Do Privacy Requirements Affect My Business?
Privacy and security go hand in hand. Cybersecurity focuses on protecting precious data from unauthorized viewers. Meanwhile, privacy focus on protecting this data itself by ensuring it isn’t viewed or shared illegally. Both businesses and customers have an expectation of privacy when they trust another business with their data. So what are these privacy requirements and how do they impact your company? Continue reading to find out!
What Does “Privacy” Mean?
For example, the best way to think about privacy is to consider personal health records. We can all relate to wanting our medical data kept private. And so, a health practitioner may have access to all Ontario health records through a digital platform. Yet, they’re only allowed to access the records of patients under their care. Unlike a security breach, a privacy breach occurs when someone accesses records they shouldn’t.
For instance, two employees at Mount Sinai Hospital illegally accessed and leaked former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s medical documents. As a result, these healthcare workers became the first people in Ontario convicted under Ontario’s health privacy law.
What Privacy Requirements Mean For Your Business
All business owners and managers should thoroughly understand the types of data covered by privacy policies. Here’s a refresher, just in case: private data includes employee data, customer data, transactional data, and so on. Companies have two main obligations (but this is just the tip of the obligation iceberg). First, they’re obligated to secure all sensitive information from unauthorized access. Second, it’s up to companies to ensure authorized professionals handle sensitive data properly.
Businesses need to follow many privacy laws and industry standards worldwide to correctly protect sensitive data.
Some of these privacy requirements and policies include:
- GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation, European Union)
- HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, United States)
- CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act, California)
- PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, Canada)
QuickProtect Can Help
As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to know and follow the privacy laws in your region and industry. In some cases, you may have to follow both an industry standard and country regulation.
Whichever privacy act affects your business, QuickProtect can help you learn what data you need to protect and how to protect it.
