The data privacy landscape is always changing and evolving, and the past year was no exception.

Besides the “normal” changes that businesses are used to when it comes to privacy regulations, businesses also had to adapt to the “new normal” due to the pandemic that brought new concerns about data privacy and protection as everyone switched to remote work.

With the increased complexity of privacy regulations increases, organizations also have to step up their game when it comes to personal data management.

Here are 5 best practices you should implement in order to improve data privacy.

Practice minimal data collection

When it comes to collecting data, it’s a good rule of thumb to only collect the information that you absolutely need. The less data you collect, the less you’ll have to worry about privacy.

Instead of collecting personal data, consider some alternative approaches. Namely, try to only verify and not store data whenever that’s possible. This system relies on third-party sources to check the accuracy of the user’s input, verifying that they really are who they’re claiming to be.

A good example of this is the Know Your Customer (KYC) system that helps you check customers’ identities without storing their data.

For the data you do end up collecting, you should apply the principle of minimal disclosure and only certain pieces of information necessary with third parties.

Make policies easily achievable

In order to ensure data privacy, you need to have clear privacy and security policies. However, these policies are of no use if they exist only on paper.

You also need to make sure that your policies are enforced, and the best way to accomplish that is by making them achievable and easy to follow.

Don’t forget that your employees are human beings who are prone to mistakes, so try to remove all obstacles and automate as much as possible.

For example, if your employees send and receive a lot of emails on a daily basis, it might be difficult for them to keep different email retention policies in mind depending on which type of data they contain. This leaves room for mistakes that can compromise data privacy and lead to compliance violations.

To avoid these risks, you can use on-premise email archiving solutions that allow you to automate retention and easily ensure compliance with data privacy regulations.

Investing in automation solutions is a great way to eliminate human errors, ensure data privacy and security, streamline compliance, and avoid hefty legal fines