CFO's: Your revenue stream is at risk.

Remote Working is Causing a Data Privacy Meltdown That Customers Need Addressed

by Penny Heyes

Penny is a co-founder of The Trust Bridge and the Chief Commercial Officer. A highly experienced international sales, marketing and business development professional, she has worked in multiple product & service sectors, globally.

As an experienced senior executive, she has been instrumental in the growth of several start-ups, early-stage companies, as well as multinational established businesses who wish to diversify into new areas or new initiatives. Penny has extensive general management skills: operations, business-to-business, business-to-consumer sales, marketing, business development, affiliate & affinity partnerships.

More recently she has been advising clients in their Innovation in Business strategies, examining how technology is changing how businesses run, engage with their customers, employees and suppliers by creating an effective strategy and finding the right solution or solution partner to implement.

There is a global consensus that data is the new currency.

Before a potential customer comes on board, they will probably expect you to be GDPR aligned and have your ducks in a row. If not, it could seriously affect any contract re-negotiations and you could even lose existing customers.

With remote working, data is more vulnerable than it’s ever been. However unintentionally, it is being scattered far and wide. Virtual meetings and notes are being recorded unauthorised, contact information is being shared indiscriminately and confidential conversations are unwittingly taking place on group messaging platforms with dubious reputations when it comes to discretion. (privacy / protection)

High-profile data breach scandals in the media only warn of some of the sizeable expenses associated with being compromised. The actual cost is far more pernicious.

Companies need to see you that you are complying or they may decide to go elsewhere.

Big customers (all customers) will ask for GDPR (Data Protection regulation) alignment as a given during contract negotiations, or they may even add in clauses to your existing contracts

You may have heard the adage, ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail’. Customers need assurance that they can trust you.

As subject matter experts around data privacy, we know that when partnering with another organisation, or even purchasing from a supplier, many organisations will now undertake a due diligence audit - so when your organisation - needs to be prepared and aligned.

From government departments and global entities to start-ups, we have implemented practical GDPR alignments across the UK, the USA and beyond.

In our experience, the regulatory and commercial importance of data privacy and security has been increasing rapidly in parallel with the growth in the information economy. Data are the most critical assets of a company.

Ensuring that data remains uncompromised is not a once-off fix. It’s a continuing process that requires ongoing data asset management. Even if you are confident that your organisation has an effective data protection system in place, it may not be your organisation that puts you at risk.

Third-party supply chain risk

Research reveals that over 60% of IT security breaches occur via a third party. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how airtight you believe your company’s defences to be if the ever-increasing demand for working with third parties compromises your “impenetrable” defences.

Organisations need to understand what their relationship with their third-party data network is and what would be the impact on their business if that supplier breached.

Do you know which of your suppliers are aligned with regulations and have proper data security in place? Does it meet your own organisation’s standards? If you don’t know, it may be your good name that is at stake.

Reputation issues

Word gets out. Not only could a scandal cost you future business and your high standing in the industry, but it could also result in the loss of existing clients who can no longer trust you to keep their information safe.

If you experience a data breach, or the data you are collecting is used for reasons outside those for which you collected it - you could lose consumer confidence and loyalty, and face costly penalties for violating data privacy regulations.

It remains a mystery why news concerning a ruined reputation is thought to travel faster than reports of a good one.

Most people want to work with ethical compliant companies - this is a positive GOOD

Once a brand has been compromised and its reputation trashed, nobody wants to be smeared in the same way by associating with it. Similarly, if a brand is in good standing with the market and is perceived to be ethical and trustworthy, then it is easy for it to make friends (more business).

It forms an essential part of protecting shareholder value and the reputation of any associated stakeholders to promote confidence in your organisation. It also provides a competitive advantage. What is the most important asset in a company?

All the information held relevant to those customers is amongst the most valuable data held by the company. If you value what they value, you become a valuable asset.

Stricter personal data consent, accuracy and global privacy laws (most of which are based on GDPR in Europe) actually offer an enormous opportunity for organisations to improve their customer relationships and to distinguish themselves as trustworthy. You have something they want that your competitors may not.

Data risk questions you should ask yourself

Data assets permeate any business and many organisations leverage this data to become better businesses. However, what is often lacking is a holistic view of data, probably because once we start to think about it in this way the implications for the business can seem overwhelming. To make this easier to consider, here are a few questions to help identify any gap you may have in your risk assessment:

What data do I hold?
Where is the data?
What is the quality/accuracy of the data?
Who has access to read the data?
Who can edit/change the data?
Is personal data secure from unauthorised access?