The Importance of Privacy
What is privacy?
Privacy is the right to protect one’s own information from others or personal history from others. After 12 months of living our lives online, privacy is more important than ever.
Every time we sign up for online services such as emails, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, we are putting a snapshot of our lives and personal information online for the world to see. This is why it is essential to have the right to have your information kept securely when signing up to these platforms, otherwise this kind of security, everyone would have access to your life.
The Data Protection Act of 2018 establishes strict rules, data protection principles, that have to be followed. For example, that data is used fairly, lawfully and transparently. Furthermore, this enables people to have the rights to be:
· Informed how data is being used
· How personal data is being access
· How the data is erased
· How to stop or restrict the processing of your data etc.
How important is Your Brand and Goodwill?
“Imitation is the best form of flattery” or so they say. When setting up a business or even if the business is established, it’s easy to get excited about a new idea or something innovative, so much so that there is a temptation to share it with the world before the idea is launched.
Remember those school days when copying someone’s work was frowned upon? Or lifting text word for word at University was an act that could end a student’s career? Plagiarism, copying ideas, using similar branding colours or logos, taking advantage of a director’s goodwill and stealing a database of clients or even copying and pasting text from a competitor’s website, happens every day in business but they are all unethical ways of trying to get ahead!
So how important is your Brand and Goodwill to your business? The reply should be “Extremely”
So how do you protect your Brand and Goodwill?
Lets start with the Goodwill element, the client loyalty you have built up over years. You can’t force the customer to stay loyal, yet they do for many reasons- exceptional customer service, quality of the product, price, dedicated staff - all this and more adds value to your business and allows you to build up a valuable clientele. But how do you protect your database? We recently published an article by Mint Insurance which focuses on Cyber Security. What does this have to do with your database? Your data has value and therefore for a member of staff hoping to leave and set up in competition, it’s useful to know how that data is protected, who has access to it and if it’s being “downloaded”. The details of landlords are precious to any agent, so think carefully about passwords protocols and security. Check your employment contracts in relation to data protection and theft of the database. Employers place restrictions on their employees for a reason.
