Privacy and the modern workplace

Employees can work from home or abroad in a different environment and still be productive. Flexible hybrid working models with home office, bring your own device (‘BYOD’) and cross-border collaboration etc. – the modern workplace brings great opportunities, but also certain risks, in particular privacy risks. In such a dynamic and fast-paced environment, the key priority must thus be to secure clients’ and company confidential data and to comply with privacy rules.

The following practical tips can help to effectively protect data in the ‘modern workplace’:

Have your privacy plan in place

Regardless of the industry, it is not uncommon to hear about privacy breaches and their severity to companies. Therefore, companies are well advised to protect their clients’ and employees’ data with a clever privacy plan, to prevent any data breaches in the first place and to deliver an emergency plan if all else fails.

In short: Be prepared for the ‘worst case’ and make sure that data protection is at the forefront of a plan. This encompasses the protection of data in all stages of the data life cycle from collection to destruction, and across the entire organisation. Ideally, your privacy plan will entail a strategy for modern workplace handling and be reflected in useful guidelines. The following are just examples of relevant topics:

• use of Internet and email at the workplace
• dealing with employee-owned devices (‘BYOD’)
• use of mobile and storage devices
• incident handling and reporting

Get your staff involved

Your employees are your greatest asset and weak point when it comes to data handling. Whilst having the right policies and tools in place is crucial, having your employees on board will significantly reduce the risk of any data breach.

In short: Your privacy plan is obsolete if it is not known and implemented. Therefore, it is critical that employees are sensitised on privacy matters with appropriate training and guidance.

Keep learning and stay alert

Never stop learning. The modern workplace keeps evolving, and employees must continue learning with it. This can be as straightforward as identifying security weaknesses, adherence to guidelines, educating employees on best practices in the modern workplace and ensuring that you use appropriate technology.
In short: Keep up with the trends, regularly update your privacy plan and teach employee privacy awareness.