Build Trust With These Best Practices for Customer Data Privacy!
Customer data privacy is a headliner issue this year, as huge breaches continue to occur and everyday consumers raise important issues about how their data is being used by organisations. If you want to build a loyal customer base that cheers your business on to success, keeping customer data secure and using it ethically is essential. Here are some tips and best practices to follow, from our digital marketing team in Melbourne.
#1 – Commit to Minimal Data Collection
When asking for personal or other information from your customers, only gather what you actually need. If you don’t need to know their gender, name prefix, or physical address, don’t collect it. This saves your organisation from having to protect significant amounts of sensitive data that it doesn’t actually need.
#2 – Encrypt What You Collect
Encryption turns readable data into an unreadable format, so even if a cybercriminal gets into your system, the information is coded so that they can’t understand or use it. The different types of encryption do get pretty technical, but the best encryption software is easy to use, affordable and simple to install. While financial and payment information should be a priority, it’s important to encrypt other customer details as well, including names, addresses, communications between your business and your customers, and more.
#3 – Keep Software Updated
One of the easiest routes into an organisation’s network and data is out-of-date software on your devices. Software updates are quite an inconvenience at times, but they contain critical patches that seal off vulnerabilities in software applications as they are revealed. Make sure that everyone on your IT team and all your employees understand the importance of updating all tech on the network, from desktops and laptops to applications, servers, and routers.
#4 – Test for Vulnerabilities, Monitor for Threats
Keeping customer data secure should be an active process where you or an IT specialist monitors your network for vulnerabilities and can act quickly if a threat appears. No online network is completely risk-free, but taking active responsibility for the data your organisation collects and uses helps to keep these risks to a minimum – and helps you limit damage should a breach occur.
#5 – Be Transparent
Because consumer awareness about this issue is on the rise, it’s also important to show your customers how you keep their data safe, what data you collect from customers, and how you use that data. Set up a website page with your data privacy policy on it for easy access, talk about it on social media, write up blogs to empower customers to protect their data online, and be open about what you do and don’t do with their data.
If a breach does occur, deal with it professionally, quickly, and openly. Inform your customers of the size of the breach and what was compromised, your organisation’s response, and any action they should take (if needed).
Open, Honest, and Ethical Digital Marketing – That Works
At Digital Freak, we’re all about giving you solutions that actually work, rather than those that simply look good! We’ll take on your digital marketing, social media marketing, website design, and more with a good sense of humour, practicality, and honest expertise, helping you to bring your organisation’s unique personality to the world. Contact us today to find out how we can help your business go digital.
Sure, I’m a sales specialist – but we do things a little differently around here! For one thing, I’m not here to sell anything - I’m here to solve problems. By getting to know your business, you’ll get proven digital marketing solutions that bring in sales, leads, and results. It’s all about putting you ahead of the competition. Are you ready to be in first place?
