The One Question HR Should Ask to Protect Employee Privacy

How modern employee privacy protections are overtaking identity monitoring

From Facebook posts to bank accounts to medical records, we generate, use, and store massive amounts of personal data online—all of it vulnerable to exposure and theft. In 2020, consumers lost more than $3.3 billion to identity theft and fraud, up from $1.9 billion in 2019, according to the Federal Trade Commission, and an average of 23.9 devices and connections per North American household is resulting in even greater risk to your personal privacy and everyone else’s who is connected to you.

For HR professionals on the front lines to protect their employees’ online privacy and digital identity, these statistics may seem overwhelming. Offering identity theft protection as a benefit can serve as an excellent defense against these threats and help your employees do their best work.

The challenge is selecting the right employee identity and privacy protection benefit for your company.

Privacy theft is the new identity theft

About 50 to 60 companies provide identity theft protection, an umbrella term covering a wide category of services such as credit monitoring, identity monitoring, identity restoration, and insurance. While you spend time researching each of these options, consider one critical question: How well does this identity protection service address my employees’ overall privacy concerns?

Identity theft is not just about a stolen credit card or Social Security Number any more. This old-style crime is giving way to newer, more sophisticated digital risks to privacy. In fact, identity theft now could be considered a subset of privacy theft.

As your employees and their family members increase their use of digital products—think of those 23.9 connections and devices—they’re more exposed to emerging employee privacy and fraud risks. These include social media threats like scams, account takeover, impersonation, and inappropriate content.

To truly help your employees, it’s time to look beyond the commoditized versions of identity theft protection—e.g., credit monitoring—to one that is broader in scope and privacy-focused.

New privacy risks require new identity and privacy protection

Privacy-focused identity protection helps safeguard your employees by:

• Protecting personal and family members’ social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn
• Detecting fraudulent links
• Removing inappropriate content
• Scanning the deep and dark web for compromised credentials
• Alerting individuals to the exposure of personally identifiable information (PII)
• Monitoring healthcare information for fraudulent use

Privacy-focused identity protection continually adapts to the latest intelligence of threats and scams. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning—combined with the highest standards of security—to meet these evolving threats and identify activity that is not typical of a specific social media account. Timely alerts mean your employees can act quickly while there is minimal risk to their privacy.

Who’s your go-to source for identity protection benefits?

With dozens of identity theft protection providers on the market, selecting the best choice for your employees and their families can be a difficult task. Asking one important question can simplify your decision: Which identity protection service offers the best defense against privacy risks? This type of benefit is a powerful way to advocate for the people you serve in a treat-filled world.

Download the HR to the Rescue white paper to discover how you can defend your employees’ privacy and identity.