Keeping Customer Data Private - Ecommerce Safety Tips
Now that the world has gone almost completely digital, every company needs to make a good first impression online. They need good content, an attractive layout, and a sufficient amount of information on every platform. But they also need to appear trustworthy to gain the personal details of potential customers for successful marketing, and these details need to be kept confidential.
It’s not often that new organizations consider implementing a digital information policy for their customers because they work on a small enough scale that they assume they’re not at risk of theft. The sad truth is, security breaches can happen to anyone. They’re expensive, prohibitive, and simply alarming, often causing a significant decrease in customers. So how do you prevent them from happening? You take a step-by-step approach.
Minimize the amount of data you collect, if possible. Every company, whether you’re an ecommerce company or not, needs a certain amount of customer data to properly cater to their needs. Oftentimes, this data is a name and email address. Unless the customer is purchasing something online by credit card, no other personal details need to be collected. Companies rarely ever require all of a customer’s personal information, mainly due to the fact that there are so many other ways to analyze your buyer group and other ecommerce trends. Take what you need and nothing more.
Related to data collection is data storage. You can’t collect an abundance of data if you don’t have a secure way to store it. Not only should you collect a small amount of data, but you should also clear out your data storage periodically. When it comes to setting up a new data storage system, it’s essential to check with a professional about the international laws surrounding the issue, asking as many important questions as you can.
Although you’ll be less likely to experience a security breach if you plan ahead, the information you’ve collected can still be exposed. Establish an emergency plan that goes into action in the case that your data is compromised, assigning a specific role to each person in your organization and making sure they all know how to correctly execute it.
Unfortunately, your data can be compromised through a company you’re associated with, too. Create a digital policy that protects your customer information wherever it is, making your associated entities aware of the rules being put in place. Discuss your emergency plan with them as well so they know how to act in the unlikely event that a breach occurs.
No digital policy should be set up and left alone for years on end. It should be reviewed frequently and changed when something major in the organization changes. Much like SEO, it requires frequent checkups. It’s also important to note that while you may like the idea of a digital policy, you may need to warm your employees up to it and explain why it’s necessary.
Every company, should have a digital policy that caters to its specific needs. And each one, without exception, requires dedicated, long term maintenance to work.
