From the course: Creating a Culture of Privacy

Sustaining a culture of privacy

From the course: Creating a Culture of Privacy

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Sustaining a culture of privacy

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- The first step in ensuring an enduring culture of privacy is measuring it on a regular basis. As you build out your privacy program, think about the metrics by which you want to measure it. For example, consider tracking the number of customer inquiries or complaints you receive in a year. Or maybe look at how many customers navigate to the privacy policy, or use your settings. Maybe even consider the number of regulator inquiries you receive, or don't receive. Or the number of data incidents. Work with your internal audit team, or find a third party to audit your program on an annual basis to ensure that your policies and procedures are being followed. Even more importantly, have them conduct random interviews with employees throughout your organization to determine how well the privacy message you're trying to convey is filtering down to your employees. Second, establish a training program that is informative, engaging, and required for all employees on an annual basis. Keep records of all employees who attend the training, and work with HR to find consequences for those who don't complete the training by the deadline. Third, keep your finger on the pulse of what your customers think about how your company handles privacy issues. Reach out to your customer service department and ask them to forward on to you any customer inquiries or complaints they receive regarding privacy. If you have the resources, conduct a focus group to get more insight on your customer's concerns about privacy and their view of how well or not so well your company is protecting it. Fourth, reward your employees for their commitment to privacy. Work with your HR team to find out if there are ways you can develop a reward program for employees who go above and beyond to protect privacy. Consider whether there's a way to tie privacy into the annual review process, so that employees are measured on their commitment to privacy. Develop a monthly newsletter to keep employees informed about new laws or issues arising in privacy. You may even want to create a short bullet point list of the hot topics each month for the executive team to help keep them apprised of privacy issues impacting your industry. Finally, take the time to recognize your achievements in building a culture of privacy in your organization. You can do this by hosting a privacy awareness event at your company, reporting your achievements out to the executive team and the board, and working to promote your team's accomplishments across the company. At the end of the day, take the time to appreciate the important work you're doing, both for your company and its customers by developing a successful and enduring culture of privacy. You're helping pave the road for your company to approach the future in an ethical way that is designed to preserve its access to a very precious resource, your customers' data.

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