International Data Privacy Day: Our Top 10 Data Privacy Tips

By: Michelle Cohen

It’s International Data Privacy Day!  Every year on January 28, the United States, Canada and 27 countries of the European Union celebrate Data Privacy Day.  This day is designed to raise awareness of and generate discussion about data privacy rights and practices.  Indeed, each day new reports surface about serious data breaches, data practice concerns, and calls for legislation.  How can businesses manage data privacy expectations and risk amid this swirl of activity?

Here, we share some tips from our firm’s practice and some recent FTC guidance.  We don’t have a cake to celebrate International Data Privacy Day but we do have our “Top 10 Data Privacy Tips”:

1. Review Your Organization’s Privacy Policy. Remember that privacy policy you had counsel prepare a few years ago?  It’s a good time to review it and assess whether it still reflects company practices.  What kind of personal information does your company collect? How does it move through your business?  How is it shared?  Has your organization’s policy on sharing personal information changed?  Does the privacy policy reflect legal changes in the states where you operate?  Privacy policies are not meant to be stagnant documents.  You should review them at least twice a year to ensure they are accurate. Even something as simple as the privacy officer’s contact information may need an update.

2. Do What You Say.  When you post a privacy policy, you are committing to the practices in the policy.  If your policy says “we will never share your information with third party marketers” – then you shouldn’t be sharing with third party marketers.  Common sense?  Yes, but companies have faced enforcement actions and litigation for pledging to “never share” when they did share.  Other companies like Snapchat settled with the FTC over statements in their privacy policies concerning how their apps operate and secure information that the FTC claimed were not true. Privacy policies should carve out disclosures for sharing information where sharing is likely to take place, such as in response to legal process, like a court order.  We also recommend a carve out in the event of a sale or reorganization of the business or of its assets. Other carve-outs may be warranted.

3. Ensure Your U.S.-E.U. Safe Harbor Is Up-to-Date. Last year, the FTC took action against several companies, including the Atlanta Falcons and Level 3 Communications, for stating in their privacy policies that they were U.S.-E.U. Safe Harbor Certified by the U.S. Department of Commerce when, in fact, the companies had failed to keep their certification current by reaffirming their compliance annually. While your organization is not required to participate in Safe Harbor, don’t say you are Safe Harbor Certified if you haven’t filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce. And, remember that your company needs to reaffirm compliance annually, including payment of a fee.  You can check your company’s status here.

4. Understand Your Internal Risks. We’ve said this before – while malicious breaches are certainly out there, a significant percentage of breaches (around 30 percent, according to one recent study) occurs due to accidents or malicious acts by employees.  These acts include lack of firewalls, lack of encryption on devices (such as laptops and flash drives), and failing to change authentications when employees leave or are terminated.  Many data breaches are While you are at it, review who has access to confidential information and whether proper restrictions are in place.

5. Educate Your Workforce. While today is International Data Privacy Day, your organization should educate your workforce on privacy issues throughout the year. Depending on the size of the company and the type of information handled (for instance, highly sensitive health information versus standard personal contact details), education efforts may vary. You should review practices like the confidentiality of passwords, creating a secure password and changing it frequently, and avoiding downloading personal or company sensitive information in unsecured forms.  Just last week, a security firm reported that the most popular passwords for 2014 were “123456” and “password.”  At a minimum, these easily guessed passwords should not be allowed in your system.

6. Understand Specific Requirements of Your Industry/Customers/ Jurisdiction. Do you have information on Massachusetts residents?  Massachusetts requires that your company have a Written Information Security Program.  Does your company collect personal information from kids under 13?  The organization must comply with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the FTC’s rules.  The FTC has taken many actions against companies deemed to be collecting children’s information without properly seeking prior express parental consent.

7. Maintain a Data Breach Response Plan. If there were a potential data breach, who would get called?  Legal?  IT?  Human Resources?  Public relations?  Yes, likely all of these. The best defense is a good offense – plan ahead.  Representatives from in-house and outside counsel, IT/IS, human resources, and your communications department should be part of this plan. State data breach notification laws require prompt reporting. Some companies have faced lawsuits for alleged “slow” response times.  If there is potential breach, your company needs to gather resources, investigate, and if required, disclose the breach to governmental authorities, affected individuals, credit reporting agencies, etc.

8. Consider Contractual Obligations. Before your company commits to data security obligations in contracts, ensure that a knowledgeable party, such as in-house or outside counsel, reviews these commitments.  If there is a breach of a contracting party’s information, assess the contractual requirements in addition to those under data breach notification laws. The laws generally require notice to be given promptly when a company’s data is compromised while under the “care” of another company. On the flip side, consider the service providers your company uses and what type of access the providers have to sensitive data. You should require service providers to adhere to reasonable security standards, with more stringent requirements if they handle sensitive data.

9. Review Insurance Coverage. While smaller businesses may think “we’re not Target” and don’t need cyber insurance, that’s a false assumption. In fact, smaller businesses usually have less sophisticated protections and can be more vulnerable to hackers and employee negligence.  Data breaches – requiring investigations, hiring of outside experts such as forensics, paying for credit monitoring, and potential loss of goodwill – can be expensive. Carriers are offering policies that do not break the bank. Cyber insurance is definitely worth exploring.  If you believe you have coverage for a data incident, your company should promptly notify the carrier. Notice should be part of the data breach response plan.

10. Remember the Basics! Many organizations have faced the wrath of the FTC, state attorneys general or private litigants because the companies or its employees failed to follow basic data security procedures. The FTC has settled 53 data security law enforcement actions. Many involve the failure to take common sense steps with data, such as transmitting sensitive data without encryption, or leaving documents with personal information in a dumpster. Every company must have plans to secure physical and electronic information. The FTC looks at whether a company’s practices are “reasonable and appropriate in light of the sensitivity and amount of consumer information you have, the size and complexity of your business, and the availability and cost of tools to improve security and reduce vulnerabilities.” If the FTC calls, you want to have a solid explanation of what you did right, not be searching for answers, or offering excuses.  Additional information on the FTC’s guidance can be found here.

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 Remember, while it may be International Data Privacy Day, data privacy isn’t a one day event. Privacy practices must be reviewed and updated regularly to protect data as well as enable your company to act swiftly and responsively in the event of a data breach incident.