Customers desire to be in control over their data because they do not trust how companies handle it.
According to Pew Research Center research,79% of customers are concerned about their data security and privacy. It has been identified as the top source of worry for customers in many surveys and polls, especially with the rise in the frequency and severity of data breaches.
This concern implies that data security and privacy should be top of mind for businesses, and they should re-evaluate and update their data privacy policies and procedures regularly.
There are regulations that may prompt to secure customer data, such as;
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA)
NIST800-53
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS)
Companies that gather data on European Union (EU) citizens and residents are required under GDPR to implement a reasonable level of data protection. The GDPR and the CCPA are the two most well-known legislations, however, data protection from cyberattacks laws exist in at least 25 states, affecting both privately and publicly held businesses.
In the previous 12 months, 35% of American families have had a data privacy issue, such as identity theft, data theft, or computer infection. Customers believe that businesses are vulnerable to cyberattacks in 69% of cases. When determining which organizations to trust, almost 70% of co look for honesty and openness when it comes to their personal data.
Companies clearly bear a significant amount of responsibility for not only protecting their customers' data but also for sharing their strategy. The ability of a corporation to safeguard customer data is critical to building trust and maintaining customers.
What is defined as customer data?
Customer data is information about customers obtained in a first-party context, such as websites, applications, physical stores, or other circumstances where customers provided the company with their personal information.
Common customer data that a company might store, include:
Name Information – Title, First Name (Forename), Last Name (Surname), Designatory letters, etc.
Personal Information – Date of Birth, Gender, etc.
Postal Address Information – Building Number, Building Name, Address Lines, Town, County, Postal/Zip Code, Country, etc.
Telephone Information – Home Telephone No., Work Telephone No., Mobile No., etc.
Email Address Information – Personal Email Address, Work Email Address, etc.
Social Network Information – Facebook Identifier, Twitter Address, LinkedIn identifier, etc.
Account Information – Details of your customer’s account ids or user ids, Bank, and credit card details.
Job Information – Company Name, Department Name, Job Title, etc.
Family Details – Marital status, number of children, age of children, etc.
Health information – medical records, etc.
Lifestyle Details – Property type, car type, number of car doors, pet ownership, etc.
Career Details – Profession, Education level, etc.
Transactional Information (Online and Offline) – Number of products purchased, actual products purchased, Order/Subscription Value, Order/Renewal dates, product abandonments (abandoned baskets), Product Returns, etc.
Communication Information (inbound and outbound) – Communication date, communication channel, Opens, Click throughs, etc.)
Online Activity – Website visits, product views, online registrations, etc.
Social Network Activity – Facebook likes Twitter interactions, etc.
Customer Services Information – Complaint details, customer query details, etc.
Attitudinal information – How do you rate our customer service, how do you rate the value of the product, how likely are you to purchase our product again, etc.?
Opinion – What is your favorite colors, where is your favorite holiday destination, etc.
Motivational – Why was the product purchased (personal use, gift for someone, etc.), what was the key reason for purchasing our product (locality, price, quality), etc.
Why is protecting customer data important?
To minimize the company's risk of a data breach
Data breaches are a big concern now more than ever. While this can be primarily a worry for huge corporations, small and medium-sized businesses that handle data are also affected. Cybercriminals employ a variety of “safeguard-cracking” techniques to illicitly acquire a user’s data. Some of the major data breaches are:
In June 2021, a massive LinkedIn breach exposed the data of 700M users, including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries. The database of its 92% users was for sale on the dark web.
In March 2021, Microsoft detected multiple zero-day exploits being used to attack on-premises versions of the Microsoft Exchange Server, and consequently, over 30,000 organizations in the US were attacked.
In March 2021, over 1 million GoDaddy Managed WordPress hosting customers suffered a data breach. The exposed customer data included email addresses, WordPress administrator level passwords, database usernames, and passwords, etc. >
To maintain and improve brand value
Companies that make it clear that protecting their customers' privacy is a top priority and support that goal with transparent and consistent privacy practices, gain the trust of the public, investors, and customers. Eventually, this transparency increases brand value and builds up the brand reputation.
How to protect customer data
With the HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, NIST800-53, PCI-DSS, and other regulations imposing sanctions for failing to protect customer data, we offer 4 practices to take to keep customer data safer.
Monitor customer data for potential threats
Cyber thieves target non-public personal information (NPI) and personally identifiable information (PII) because they can sell it on the Dark Web. Companies should understand what NPI & PII data they have and where it is stored and develop a prevention strategy.
Monitoring customer data for risks is the first step to mature security posture.
Comply with changing regulations
A company’s cybersecurity strategy must keep up with evolving legislation, particularly in areas touched by new customer privacy laws. Data privacy regulations differ from nation to country, and a company should be informed of the rules of the country or area where it is operating.
Staying compliant not only protects the firm from big penalties but also shows customers that your company is aware of cybersecurity threats and is trying to secure their data and give customers back control.
Encrypt Customer Data
Encryption is the technique of encoding sensitive information so that only the intended recipient may read it. Encryption is critical for securing your customers' information. This strategy protects data from both external and internal hackers.
Frequently test cybersecurity posture
Testing people, processes, and technologies and assessing a company’s cybersecurity weaknesses is a critical part of strengthening overall information security programs. All types of cybersecurity tests will validate your security posture. Based on test results and findings a company can create a risk mitigation plan to prioritize and fix the issues.
It is in every company’s best interest to protect all its customers’ data against cyberattacks, no matter how insignificant they may appear. A data breach at one company may lead to a data breach at another and create quantified risks of compliance violations, which later transform to financial damage in the form of regulatory fines and penalties.
Learn how Humanize Salience helps companies protect their customer data.
