As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic started emerging, countries closed down and forced their citizens into confinement. Businesses were involuntarily made to leave their offices and switch to online remote operations immediately, without a transitional period. Before then, the vast majority of companies never had to set data privacy policies or data privacy best practices for online collaborations, nor for the transaction of critical information, such as personal data of customers or beneficiaries, thus, risking the breach of privacy.
Data Privacy is a part of data security that is concerned with how companies handle data, from its collection to its storage, and sharing. However, Data Privacy is regulated worldwide by privacy laws and regulations, such as the EU data protection rules and the US data privacy laws, allowing data subjects to have control over their information and records. Failure to follow these regulations or failure with compliance with the data privacy laws, can cost companies millions in lawsuits. Data Privacy laws in healthcare and financial institutions date back to over 23 years, while the education sector has regulations dating back to 1974.
With almost all an individual’s data residing online now, it is only natural for people to have growing concerns about their private information and how to protect it, which lead to the emergence of Content Services and Solutions such as Records Management, Documents Management, Digital Assets Management and so on.
A deeper dive into Data Privacy
Though some institutions believe that all they have to do in order to comply with Data Privacy regulations is not to share their clients’ information online, there are many challenges beyond the surface that come into play.
Human Error
Human error is the biggest challenge in Data Privacy as using weak passwords, deleting data by mistake, misplacing a personal laptop in a public place, falling for scams and so, may jeopardize the privacy and security of any company’s sensitive data and information. Companies should invest in both data security and privacy training and software solutions that forbid data loss or leakage.
The Cost of Data Breaches
Data breaches or the risk of exposing private information can also cost companies millions of dollars due to regulatory penalties and potential lawsuits. Therefore, it is known to be wiser for a company to invest in key security software solutions that allow proper handling and management of information and vital records.
The Exponential Growth of Data
With megabytes and megabytes of information being created every second, companies must try to keep up with securing and protecting sensitive and personal information such as Personal Identifiable Information (PII), especially with millions of data records being pirated and breached every year. This ongoing and growing traffic of information has made it very challenging for companies to handle and protect so many records and information.
Open System Vulnerabilities
Rapid development in technology and software development means a rapid growth in vulnerabilities. This automatically means an increase of data breaches as well, making it very difficult yet challenging for security administrators to manage without the help of software solutions dedicated to covering security patches.
Not only do companies need to worry about these challenges, but they also need to worry about Data Privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which allows individuals rights to protect their personal data through policies pertaining to the “Right to access personal information”, “right to data portability”, “right to rectification”, and “right to be forgotten”.
These rights, in a nutshell, allow an individual to reach a company holding their personal data, and ask to know about all of their data that the company has, ask for a copy to leave with, ask to adjust wrong information, and finally, have the right to ask the company to delete all their information. Failing to do so on behalf of the organization holding the information, even if by forgetting the tiniest bit of information, may cost the organization millions of dollars for non-compliance.
Records Management Solutions, a Data Privacy Shield
Now, more than ever, with the exponential creation of data and information, and with the increased importance and strictness of regulatory laws, organizations need to have effective records management systems in place.
What is Records Management?
We all know that Records Management or Record Information Management (RIM), is the process that starts with the creation of data up until archival. It ensures the proper maintenance and protection of vital information such as financial and legal documents to name a few. It makes sure that valuable data is classified and preserved, and that data of no value gets discarded according to specific guidelines, in order for the organization to have proper regulatory compliance.
Records Management Features:
Back when everything was done by hand and records were lost or misplaced, companies knew there needed to be a more efficient way of handling data, making way for the digitalization of records. Today, Records Management solutions can help maintain and protect Data Privacy by granting access and authority to specific entities. This also helps organizations reduce the risk of ill-handling of information by untrained employees. It is as well done by an important feature, which is the encryption of documents through PKI and only allowing specific users to decrypt.
Furthermore, these solutions allow secure control and retention, making data removal an easier process, especially in cases where individuals use their “right to be forgotten”. Not only do these solutions offer centralized search results that leave no data unread, but they also identify, reduce, and resolve security and privacy risks.
Top 5 benefits of Records Management
Though the benefits of Records Management are countless and we have already seen many, however, the benefits of such solutions encompass Data Privacy. Here are the top 5 benefits of Record Management systems:
Here are the top 5 benefits of Records Management Systems:
- Effective management of records: from collection to archiving, following specific policies that allow a very small margin of error, in order to organize the exponential growth of data within an institution.
- Reduced redundancy of documents and information: facing the risk of repetition and duplication of data, the system can either inform specific users or automatically follow guidelines on how to process information redundancy.
- Reduced cost of storage: moving from the cost of paper documents stored in costly storage units with the use of supplies to centralized digital easy-to-use platforms securing all the information belonging to a business or organization.
- Elimination of unnecessary files: by properly and safely getting rid of invaluable, outdated, or duplicated files.
- Accountability and timely access: by tracking authority and accountability of use of information on the platform, as well as real-time access and tracking of records and information.
Conclusion
Records Management can help companies in every stage of the data lifecycle, as well as protect and respect Data Privacy rights. Intalio offers Records Management Software with the ability to assign specific identifiers and ensure record authenticity. This solution allows organizations to comply with both internal and external regulations, limiting risks, and breaches.
Beyond the standard features, with Intalio’s Records Management Solution, companies can apply customized procedures to achieve regulatory compliance, as well as define retention schedules with a choice between automatic or manual transitions.
It can also send alerts to stakeholders prompting them to take immediate action, with a pre-configured process that does not allow deletion prior to a required confirmation. And finally, with Intalio’s Record Management solutions, users may generate audit trails and reports which include used media, duplications in other destinations, and event logs.
To learn more about features offered by Intalio’s Record Management Solution, and how it can help you protect your institution’s data privacy, visit our website.
