Data breaches can cause serious financial, emotional, reputational or even legal harm to both the individuals and organisations involved. In most cases, it is far easier to prevent a data breach from occurring than it is to clean up the mess after it has happened!
So, make things a little easier for yourself by developing proactive measures, rather than reactive measures, when it comes to privacy.
Here are 5 tips for good privacy practice that you can implement now:
- Develop a privacy policy and make it publicly available. Many business are required to do so under the Australian Privacy Principles, but even if this is not a specific requirement for you, it is a great way to develop consumer trust in your business.
- Create a data breach response plan. By having a data breach response plan ready to go, you will ensure that you can respond quickly to data breaches which can minimise the associated privacy risks.
- Implement practices and procedures to support your privacy policy. A leadership commitment to a culture of privacy is a foundation for good privacy governance.
- Implement procedures to protect the personal information that you collect and hold about your staff and customers. And always remember to ask yourself whether you should be collecting this personal information at all. Is it required?
- Check the privacy practices of third parties with which you share personal information. Your responsibility to protect the personal information of your staff and customers includes making sure that you don’t provide their information to third parties who may misuse or disclose it!
For more information on good privacy practice head to https://www.oaic.gov.au/.
