5 Questions to Ask When Evaluating an Employee Privacy Solution

Minimizing data exposure by protecting the privacy of your employees is important to everyone

Data is the world’s most valuable and vulnerable resource. That’s why protecting your employees' digital privacy continues to be critical for every organization. However, with the shift to working from home, often on personal devices and networks, triggering a 400% increase in cybercrimes in 2020, protecting an employee's privacy has become critical for all organizations. When evaluating how best to protect your employees, their personal information, and ultimately your organization's data, there are five important questions to ask in order for your organization (and your customers and employees) to stay safe online.

Mitigating data privacy and data security risks continue to be critical for every organization. Early detection and proactive approaches can help minimize data privacy risks and detect identity theft. Meanwhile, millions of people are unaware how their personal information is being used, collected, and shared in our digital society, according to the National Cybersecurity Alliance. Not to mention that employees can inadvertently expose their sensitive information — or companies’ sensitive information — to hackers or identity thieves, putting organizations at a greater risk. According to the FBI, the top three cyber-related crimes in 2020 were phishing scams, non-payment/non-delivery scams, and extortion. And, did you know that 80% of hacking-related data breaches are linked to passwords? Learn more about how to protect your employees, members, and customers online.

IDX has everything needed for your organization, and your employees, to stay safe online, including privacy offerings that empower individuals to take control of their own privacy risks.

When evaluating an employee privacy and identity solution, here are five questions to ask:

1. Does it have a privacy score feature to help engage with individuals? Learn more about how personalized privacy scores can provide feedback and outline steps for users to take to improve their digital privacy.

2. Does it have an automatic data removal tool that can delete personal information from data broker sites? This is a big deal since having personal data spread everywhere can fuel social engineering campaigns and impact your organization. After all, the data broker industry is a $200 billion business. Did you know that big tech’s data collection can put your organization’s data at risk? Learn more how this data removal feature works.

3. Does it have a tracking blocker that can stop companies from tracking online behaviors? 79% of websites use trackers to collect user data. And sometimes these sites even continue to collect information about individuals after they leave the website. This trend certainly impacts consumers but this data can also lead hackers right back to your organization. Pretty creepy, right?

4. Can it provide personal VPNs? This is important because 85% of data breaches now involve the “human element,” meaning that people, most unwittingly, provide criminals with access to business systems, according to the 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR). Read more about why using a VPN is important.

5. Does it have a password detective to check if passwords have been compromised on the dark web? IT professionals are guilty of reusing passwords and 42% of organizations admit to using sticky notes to manage them. Using password managers can be a great help when it comes to work and non-work by providing a convenient and secure way to your business access points and also help to mitigate the risk of data breaches.

More Privacy Tips and Resources at Your Fingertips

To minimize risks to your employees, members, customers — and to your company — we offer an abundance of privacy tips and privacy resources. Here’s a quick overview:

1. Establish a privacy policy company-wide. The National Cybersecurity Alliance advocates creating company-wide awareness to reinforce privacy at every level.

2. Be a defender of privacy for your organization. Learn what actions you can take and best practices to adopt and implement across your company to protect your customers, employees, and ultimately your organization.

3. Help employees manage their individual privacy. The NCSA is a good resource.

4. Cybersecurity training for employees. Given the recent influx of ransomware attacks, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has released guidance to help companies avoid becoming victims of ransomware attacks.

5. Offer identity theft & privacy protection to your customers or your employees. ​Identity theft often goes undetected for many months — even years. We outline what to look for when considering identity and privacy solutions.

Protecting privacy is not only the right thing to do, it’s a smart business decision. Forward-thinking organizations are transitioning from a reactive risk posture to a proactive one to help regain control in a topsy-turvy world. Did you know that for every dollar spent on privacy, the average company receives $2.70 in associated benefits? Learn more about our enterprise privacy solutions and how your company can gain benefits from it.