As a business owner as a business owner, you must deal with the personal details of your employees as well as customers. You are required by law to safeguard the information and ensure that it is used correctly. It isn’t always clear what constitutes personal information.
It is crucial to understand that the definition of personal information differs depending on the legal jurisdiction and country of origin. In general, personal data is any information that can be used to identify a person. This includes information like the email address of a person or telephone number, however it includes any other information that can be linked to an individual, thereby making them identifiable. For example the date of birth or their mother’s maiden names biometric data, details about passports and visas or credit card numbers, and other sensitive data regarding employment (e.g. Performance ratings and discipline records).
The information should also be identifiable by other people. If it is very difficult for someone else to recognize the information, it is not considered personal. This is called the “practicability test”.
The final step to determine whether something is personal is that it must be about a living, identified person. This does not include business documents like invoices, orders or any other documents for business.
Personal information that is sensitive can be extremely damaging if it is stolen, lost or divulged without authorization. It is essential to inform employees about the importance of safeguarding sensitive PII. It is www.bizinfoportal.co.uk/2021/04/01/maximizing-your-business-information-portal/ also important to take steps to safeguard the information even when it’s not in use, such as by logging off computers unsupervised and burning paper records. It is also important to regularly review the PII stored within your system and restrict access to only those who have the need for business to access it.