The regulation of data collected by an organisation is called Data Privacy. It ensures that the personal data collected and processed is done in protection of the data subject. Data privacy regulations ensure such protection to the data subject whose data is collected by companies. Currently, around 120 countries have enforced a data protection and privacy legislations while many drafts bills for data protection are under consideration to become a legislation. Regulations provide for employment of measures, safeguards, assessments, and compliances for ensuring protection of personal data. Non-compliance under data privacy legislations can attract hefty fines as enforcement actions. For instance, under GDPR, fines issued can range up to 20 million euros or 4% of the annual worldwide turnover (whichever is greater).
Companies have evidently started focusing on security and have started to implement ways to protect themselves from falling victim to cyberattacks and started to take action to secure their business from these threats. Multinational companies have specially employed measures for global compliance owing to their vast presence. Data privacy consultancies in India can help ensure compliance with implementation of security measures to protect the data processed by companies operating internationally due to their vast knowledge and subject matter expertise.
Some recommended measures to ensure your business is protected from data protection enforcements are:
- Creating awareness
Companies should create awareness and establish data privacy trainings for employees and stakeholders. Creating awareness about enforcements and fines would ensure that the protection of personal data is taken seriously and implemented properly. Employees should be made aware on how to protect the data and what are the consequences of not protecting the data. The employees and staff of the companies should be trained on the controls and methodologies for such protection and should be made aware on the steps to be taken in the event of breach to minimize damage.
- Maintain Records of processing activities
Companies should incorporate maintaining of records and logs of all data processing activities undertaken by the organisation. Such maintenance of records ensures that there is accountability on every party processing the data to comply with the data protection regulations and protect the personal data processed. A record of processing activities should be updated at a regular interval and help to serve as a legally complaint document for data supervisory authorities.
- Publish and maintain data privacy policies and notices
Different data privacy policies such as Cookie policy and Privacy policies and notices should be drafted and maintained by the company. Such policies documents the measures adopted and maintained by the company to protect the data they process. The policies mention all the uses of the data, the types of data collected, the period it would be retained, the instances such data would be transferred to third countries and the procedures through which the data subjects can access and submit requests forms.
- Maintain a grievance redressal system
Companies should ensure that they have a grievance redressal system in place for addressing any requests such as Right to be forgotten or right to correction or simply to access their personal data. Customers can redress their grievances and requests to an employee of the company or an outsourced manager. This ensures a timely response to their grievances and serve as a point of contact between the customers and the company. The details of such officer should be mentioned in the privacy policies which are published by the company.
- Appoint Data Protection officer (DPO)
A Data protection officer is a person who supervises and maintains the controls for protection of personal data of the customers. The officer serves as a point of contact for any grievances and also ensures timely and efficient replies to data subject requests. Such data protection officer can either be a designated employee of the company or can be an external organisation, hired for all data privacy requirements of the company. Data privacy consultancy/ tech vendor/ data privacy law firm provide DPO as a service to global clients to ensure compliance with data protection regulations.
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