To be successful in today’s digital world, business owners and leaders must carefully consider how they will collect, use, and safeguard the personal data of their customers and employees. Consumers are savvier than ever and expect businesses to handle their personal data with care.  They also want organizations to be transparent about how customer data is being used so they can make educated decisions about their digital lives. 

Data Privacy vs. Data Security

Many people mix up data security and data privacy. While both important, it’s important to understand the distinction to make sure your business is providing both.

Data privacy, or information privacy, refers to the way an organization collects personal data, what it does with that information, and how a consumer can control their own personal data.

Data security focuses on protecting information from loss, theft, or unauthorized use.

While your businesses may have high security standards, if you want to truly protect your customer’s data and gain their trust, you need both strong security and clear policies around privacy protection.

Local Considerations

Currently, there are no federal regulations regarding data privacy, however many states such as California, Colorado and Virginia have passed consumer information protections in recent years.
 
The North Carolina Consumer Privacy Act was introduced in 2021 by Senator Joyce Waddell and has remained in committee since that year. If passed, the NC CAP will regulate how businesses handle, process, and use the personal data of their customers. This includes requirements for disclosing your reasons for collecting information, requiring consent for sensitive data, limiting what personal data may be collected, and more. 

Why Should You Care? 

Whether or not legislation regulating data privacy is passed in North Carolina, you can expect serious impacts to your business for failing to hold a high standard of data privacy.

Data Breaches

When you think of data security, you probably think about hackers and network intruders. But many breaches are not due to outside attacks—they’re due to internal negligence or error. This can be anything from a lost laptop to an employee clicking on an errant link. Don’t wait until a costly data breech occurs before investing in preventative measures. 

Customer Trust

In business, there are few things more important to a company’s success than its brand reputation. Customer trust is one of the biggest metrics indicating a business is on the path to success. If that trust is broken through a data breach, it can cause irreparable harm to an organization.  

Want an easy way to impress your customers? Make it a priority to protect their data beyond what is mandated.  

Be loud, transparent, and ultra-clear about the safety controls you have in place. Communicate your safety measures often and use your security as a marketing tool! Not all businesses prioritize their customers’ data, so you’ll be seen as a forward-thinking industry thought leader.

Investor Trust

Customer trust is one component of a successful business, but investor appeal should be considered too. A solid data privacy strategy can ultimately help your business attract more business. Investors will be more willing to buy into your company if they know that it has a good reputation.  

As you know, one way to maintain a pristine reputation is to ensure you have strong data privacy policies in place. Investors will lose interest if they perceive your business as a declining asset, however, a business with a stellar reputation is seen as an excellent investment opportunity.  

How CloudWyze Can Help

Technology, especially business technology used by employees, can be quite complex. CloudWyze helps protect North Carolina businesses of all sizes through its high-touch IT management and security services. 

We have vast experience working in heavily regulated industries such as medical, financial, scientific and regulated manufacturing. Our tech experts provide network monitoring, web, email and server filtering, as well as remote server protection to ensure that your most important data is always kept safe from prying eyes. 

CloudWyze also owns and operates its own fiber network, giving us direct access to subject matter experts unlike many IT managed service providers. Plus, CloudWyze offers hyper-secure cloud services to help you protect your most valuable information.

Seen with recent data breaches, it can take years for companies to fully recover from such incidents—and even longer for consumers to trust them again. 

So, what does this mean for your company? It means it’s time to get serious about protecting your customers’ data and start developing a proactive strategy to protect their sensitive information. Businesses can no longer afford to brush the issue aside. In today’s world, data privacy is no longer a consideration—it’s a must for the success of your business. At CloudWyze, your business and its safety are our highest priority.  

Find out how CloudWyze can secure your business data. Call us today at (910) 795-1000 or click here to get started.