As the owner of a business you must deal with the personal data of your employees and customers. By law, you are required to safeguard the information and ensure that it’s used in a proper manner. However, it is not always easy to determine what is considered to be personal information.
It is important to keep in mind that the definition of personal data is different according to the jurisdiction and country. It is generally defined as any information that can identify an individual. This includes information such as the name of the person, email address or phone number, as well as any other data that could link to an individual and identify them, such as their birth date and mother’s maiden name. biometric information, passport and visa information as well as credit card details, and other sensitive employment information (e.g. performance ratings and disciplinary records).
In addition the information has to be reasonably identifiable by others. If it is difficult for other people to identify the information, it is not considered to be personal. This is called the “practicability test”.
The final step to determine whether something is personal is to ensure that it can be in the name of a living, identifiable person. This doesn’t include business information such as invoices, orders, or other documents for business.
Sensitive personal information can be extremely harmful if lost, stolen or otherwise disclosed without authorization. It is crucial to educate employees on the importance of safeguarding sensitive PII. It is also important to make steps to secure the information even when it’s not in use like logging off unattended computers and eliminating the paper records. It http://www.bizinfoportal.co.uk/2021/04/01/maximizing-your-business-information-portal/ is also crucial to periodically review the PII stored within your system and restrict access to those who have a business need to access the information.