Basically, data protection means the protection of information that may not or should not be freely available to the general public. On the one hand, this means personal data, on the other hand, it also means data related to a person. Companies are obliged to collect only the minimum amount of personal data they need and must always guarantee the protection of this data. This includes the guiding principle that everyone should decide for themselves what happens to their data and who receives it. This concerns data of customers, of employees and of business partners.

At the latest with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the general public became aware of the importance of data protection. But even before that, companies were obliged to build in comprehensive processes and guidelines to give individuals more control over their personal data. Since the entry into force of the GDPR in 2018, companies must be able to prove the lawfulness of their data processing activities to supervisory authorities at any time.

What is personal data?

Personal data is data that relates to an identifiable, existing person. No distinction is made between direct and indirect identification.

Personal data are:

  • Demographic data
  • Identification numbers
  • Bank details
  • Online data
  • Value judgments
  • Health information
  • Sexual orientation
  • Politische & religiöse Settings

All this data can identify an individual and therefore needs to be well protected by companies. datango offers data protection training courses that allow you to specifically instruct your employees in this area.

An example: Your company’s contact details are not subject to data protection. Neither is a non-personalised telephone number. However, if your employees have specific email addresses and phone numbers by which they can be identified, then they are subject to data protection and must be treated with special care.

Technical and organisational measures for data protection in the company

To ensure an adequate level of protection for personal data, you must take appropriate technical and organisational measures.

The technical measures relate to the data processing operation as such. These are measures that can be implemented physically, such as installing an alarm system and fencing off the building. However, they also include measures relating to software and hardware, such as the use of a firewall.

Organizational measures, on the other hand, relate to the framework conditions of the data processing procedure. These include measures that serve to ensure that your employees comply with data protection. These include, for example, visitor logins and instructions on how to deal with faulty print products.

In order to comply with the technical and organisational measures, you should take the following measures, among others:

  • Pseudonymization and encryption of personal data
  • Permanent assurance of the confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of the systems in connection with the processing of the data
  • Confidentiality, integrity and availability of personal data
  • Restoring access to data after a physical or technical incident
  • Procedures for regularly reviewing and evaluating the effectiveness of technical and organizational measures

That’s quite a lot to keep in mind. Therefore, make training on data protection mandatory for your employees. With our training courses, there is no additional effort for you, as we have already created them for you. With the datango data protection training, your employees are comprehensively informed.

The 6 biggest data protection mistakes

Every employee in every company processes personal data almost every day. Because even when you write an email to a customer, personal data is involved. You send the name of the customer, their e-mail address and possibly also their telephone number. If the email is a shipping confirmation, it also contains the order number, the address and all the information about the goods. That’s a lot of personal data for a short email. And the responsibility to protect all this data lies with you. We can therefore only emphasise how important it is that your employees are optimally trained in data protection. With the datango data protection training , you sensitise your employees to this topic and lay the foundation for optimal application.

What you can do right now:

You can improve data protection in your company simply by ensuring that your employees do not make these 6 mistakes:

As a company, you are obliged to include a privacy statement on your website if you process personal data. The privacy statement must meet certain requirements in order to be considered legally compliant. For example, information must be provided about all analysis tools used.

Not all data is digital these days. Personal data on paper also falls under the GDPR. That’s why you should never throw documents in the wastepaper basket. Shred the documents, then no one will have access to them.

Personal data does not belong in cloud storage. These storages always have security gaps and therefore cannot provide comprehensive protection for these data. However, there is nothing wrong with storing files in a cloud that do not contain personal data.

To prevent your employees from accidentally disclosing personal data, it is essential that you inform your employees in advance what information they are allowed to give. Also, you should never leave confidential documents lying around open when you leave their desk.

So simple and yet so essential. Don’t neglect the issue of data protection in your company. Get to grips with it. Only if you know about it can your employees know about it. Therefore, train your employees on this topic to prevent sanctions in case of data protection violations.

Passwords protect access to sensitive data. Number combinations like “1234” or simple words like “password” are therefore not good solutions. Ideal passwords consist of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. The longer a password is, the more secure it is. And always remember: You have to choose a different password for each application! If you have difficulty remembering many complicated passwords, use a password management tool. This of all tools should have a secure password.

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