Best practices for processing client data
Proper data protection practices are very important. They protect you from reputational damage, the legal and financial consequences of a data breach and maintain your client’s trust. When we help our clients to solve their business challenges with tech, it’s one of the things we advise on. So today, we’re going to give some easy-to-understand best practices for processing client data, no matter your company size.
What counts as client data?
Client data is the personal info, financial records, login credentials and project files you have about your customer. Some might be sensitive personal data like trade union membership, and needs to be dealt with extremely strictly. For that reason, you should label your data types as transactional, personal or sensitive. This will allow you to handle each data type differently and restrict access appropriately.
Are you collecting more than you need?
A lot of our clients are data hoarders. That’s a slippery slope because it means you’re managing more data than you need to and opening yourself up to unnecessary risk. Instead, practice data minimisation. Only ask for what you’re going to use. If you don’t give them a birthday offer, do you need their date of birth? If so, do you need the year? It’s easy once you start interrogating your data requirements to trim down to the essentials.
Best practices around data consent
Once you have data, then you need to maintain annual opt-ins, accurate privacy notices and properly record your client agreements. Including in your documentation transparency around how your client’s data is collected, stored and used will help clients feel more comfortable about the processing. We recommend reviewing your contracts and data sharing clauses annually as a matter of good data hygiene.
Secure storage and controlled access
Next, you want to follow the ICO’s guidance on usage, storage and access. Restrict who can access what kind of data to a needs-only basis. Use individual logins instead of team ones like ‘marketing’ or ‘admin’, and if you don’t have a native storage solution, make sure to use secure cloud services. Look for ones that are encrypted, use 2fa and provide access logs for your record keeping. (Local hard drives and USB sticks without encryption are not good places to store client data.) And lastly, don’t overlook the value of having regular backups and a disaster recovery plan that you and your team have practised.
Updates and team education
Lastly, at least monthly, update all your software, plugins and security tools. Outdated systems can be entry points for breaches, but your teams will want to snooze updates if they get in the way of their productivity. Arrange for automated updates to trigger out of hours and get an agency like ours to monitor that to ensure every terminal is up to date. Then, perform internal data audits every 6-12 months, asking “Do you still need all this data?” and “Does this person still need access?” regularly. Conduct annual training on data handling, phishing awareness and password hygiene to make sure your people aren’t a target. Build a culture of responsibility around client data and encourage employees to report suspicious activity without fear of reprisals. Tell your team and your clients how you’ll handle a breach and the steps you’ll take to prevent it from recurring. That will help build confidence.
Not sure you’re adhering to best practices for processing client data? Talk to us today about how we can support you to become compliant.
