In the recent scenario, several people are now having a serious concern regarding online information privacy and security. It is true that enterprises collect information from their customers when a client visits the website, purchase online software, or interacts on social media. Different types of information are gathered by the organization, which involves at least one attribute that is for a single person identification. Any kind of data that is capable enough to disclose identification of a particular person is known as Personal Identifiable Information (PII). It is compulsory for every organization that stores customer’s information to use PII compliance. This gives assurance that the services in a firm comply with regulations, policies, and laws where applicable.
What is PII?
Before understanding about PII compliance, companies need to brush up their concepts regarding PII. Well, personal identifiable information is an individual’s details that are collected and maintained by the agency. It involves:
- The context which makes a human identity unique among all. For example – social security number, mother’s maiden name, biometric records, etc.
- A piece of information, which is directly or indirectly linked with an individual. For example – educational, medical, employment, and financial information.
If this information gets disclosed then in no time it could harm the privacy of an individual because of data breach. Not only this but, the company’s reputation will be at high risk as well.
What Piece of Data Lies Under PII Compliance?
The PII is categorized under two parts – linkable information and linked information.
- Linkable information is a piece of information, which is not capable enough to determine a person’s identity. One attribute cannot give entire information about an individual; another piece of information related to the same individual needs to find out for an accurate identification. Following are some examples that lie under this PII compliance data category:
- Country, postcode, city, state
- Person’s first and last name
- Gender
- Job place and designation
- Linked information is the category in which one single piece of context is capable enough to disclose the entire details of the person. For example – In a class, student’s roll number is his unique identity. Well, the social security number or any other information that defines the existence of a person under the country as an authentic citizen lies under this category. Driver’s license number, passport number, credit card number, etc., all fall in linked information category.
What If, Organizations Do Not Adopt PII Compliance?
The enterprises who do not take legal protection for PII of employees, customers, and other members, are at high risk of loss. Definitely, this carelessness is directly going to impact their financial growth along with the damage to the market reputation. A situation might occur where the affected firm needs to stop and close their business. It is so because there will be no more clients who will trust them and help them in growing further. Therefore, why to keep data at risk when PII compliance standards are available in today’s cloud computing technology. Adopt the standards, which are demanded to meet compliance regulatory and prevent PII content from threats.
Security Measures to Protect Personal Information
Along with the standards for PII compliance, organizations should also acquire following basic security tips:
- Know Where PII Content is Stored – An adequate cloud security service can only be applied when a business authority is known from the fact that where customer’s personal information is stored, after collecting from them.
- Know the Persons Dealing with PII – The data privacy is primarily in hands of the person who is collecting and managing it. Make sure that that individual is trustworthy because information dealing is in his / her end. If he/she does data breach then, the entire company needs to suffer.
- Create Data Policies to Safeguard It – Conduct a group of discussion among the board of directors of the enterprise and decide the set of data access controls. Decide that what all permissions should be granted to which employee, depending upon his or her working performance.
- Spread Awareness Among End Users – Check that the persons dealing with PII are aware of the cloud security risks and know about DPA responsibilities. A course of DPA staff awareness helps in communicating core messages to the staff members and takes test of their updates knowledge.
- Apply Encryption on All Possible Things – The major means that lead to data breaches are tablets, smartphones, laptops, and US sticks. Make sure that proper BYOD policies are applied in the firm and data is encrypted in rest, transmit, and use mode.
Adopt CASB Service Providers To Easily Become PII Compliance
It is not only about PII but, also about the security for business confidential information. Simultaneously, providing protection to both of them is quite difficult and complicated workload for a firm. To reduce this company effort, several services came into the existence whose purpose is only to deliver online information security. One such service are CloudCodes, which renders protection to business’s confidential content, including the PII of individuals.
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