Privacy Awareness Training Program: Steps to Make it

Breaches of privacy are one of the many leading concerns for businesses. One data breach can be enough to destroy a business's trust.

Cyber attacks are always a threat, and businesses should consider investing in a privacy awareness training program.

This article will help provide an in-depth explanation of why privacy awareness programs are essential for business. I will provide an overview of the program, explain the benefits, and give pointers on creating a training program.

Let's dive in.

Key Takeaways

• Privacy awareness training programs can provide many benefits to businesses, such as minimizing legal risk, minimizing cybersecurity risk, and an enhanced reputation.
• Training employees about cybersecurity practices should be considered to avoid privacy breaches that could destroy a business.
• A good privacy awareness program requires engaging content for the employees to learn.

What is a Privacy Awareness Training Program?

Privacy awareness programs are educational courses that are designed to teach employees about data protection laws and privacy regulations. Topics that are typically included in these programs are:

• Data regulation laws
• Business data compliance plans
• Business privacy procedures
• Social engineering awareness
• Data literacy
• Risk management

The program is designed to equip business employees with a firm understanding of data privacy. It also educates employees on following strict procedures when handling sensitive data and being able to identify any potential security risk that could arise.

Privacy awareness programs are very important to all modern-day businesses. With cyber security threats on the rise, businesses must train employees in order to respond to oncoming challenges and learn to handle them with the appropriate procedures in place.

Why Does Your Business Need a Privacy Awareness Training Program?

Investing in a privacy awareness program will provide many security benefits to a business. Having a tight privacy plan in place helps keep businesses safe from financial hardships that would otherwise lead to bankruptcy or closed doors.

Below are the top benefits that a business will have when implementing a privacy awareness program:

Minimize Cybersecurity Risk

The most obvious benefit of training employees about privacy awareness is minimizing cybersecurity risks. The scary truth about cyber threats is that they are constantly adapting and evolving to counter security protection methods.

Implementing a privacy training program will help employees stay competent.

Employees will constantly need to learn and adapt to new privacy strategies, which is why a training program will largely benefit businesses to ensure that they are up-to-date on technology and cybersecurity trends.

Fun Fact: Believe it or not, small businesses are often targeted by cyber thieves due to a lack of cyber security infrastructure.

Limit Legal Risk

Whenever a data breach occurs, there is the potential for lawsuits. Businesses are held responsible for making sure that all of their data is protected from cyber threats. Risk assessments can help reduce the chances of potential data breaches.

Failing to provide adequate protection can result in the authorities getting involved, which usually results in the business paying out massive settlements to its consumers.

Culture of Compliance

A culture of compliance is when a business creates a culture that centers around respect for data privacy and its laws.

Signs that reflect a culture of compliance are an organization that takes data privacy issues seriously and addresses complaints and concerns about data issues affecting data subjects.

Adopting a culture of compliance will encourage the business to improve its compliance solutions and promote policies and practices that will help all data subjects feel safe and secure.

Enhanced Reputation

A business that takes cybersecurity seriously is often seen as reputable. Effective cybersecurity will help bring a sense of relief to all its data subjects, knowing that their sensitive data is protected.

Consumers are less likely to do business with an organization with past data breaches. Having a positive cybersecurity track record can actually help a business retain and grow its consumer base.

What to Include Inside Privacy Awareness Training Program?

While not every business should have the same privacy awareness programs, this list of things to include inside a privacy awareness training program is a good starter list. A privacy consultant can help identify specific needs that are necessary for the business.

Below are basic cybersecurity teachings that should be included in all privacy training programs:

Review of Relevant Data Laws

It is mandatory for businesses to keep current on data protection laws. Knowing the relevant laws, whether it be CPRA or GDPR, can shape a business's privacy policies that align with the law and prevent the misuse and handling of sensitive data.

Understanding Different Types of Data

Not all data is the same. Learning to define all the data forms is necessary to manage and maintain security protocols. Below are some examples of different forms of data and which laws regulate how these data are handled:

• Personal Data: This is any information that can identify an individual, such as name, address, social security number, or email address. Laws like the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe and the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) in California regulate how personal data must be handled to protect individuals' privacy.
• Sensitive Personal Data: Now we're talking about very personal tidbits of information – things like your race, religious views, sexual orientation, or health history. These types of data require even more careful handling because they can be harmful if used inappropriately.
• Financial Data: This includes any information related to an individual's financial transactions or accounts, such as credit card numbers, bank account details, or income statements. Rules like PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) set guidelines and requirements for businesses that handle payment card data to ensure its security and prevent fraud.
• Confidential Information: This usually refers to secret information that belongs solely to companies. Suppose you think about things like business strategies, trade secrets, or intellectual property rights (think patents!). In that case, special laws such as non-disclosure agreements are there so people don't misuse the info by disclosing it without proper authorization.
• Publicly Available Information: This is publicly accessible data that can be obtained without breaching anyone's privacy rights – such as public records or online directories with contact details not marked private).

Data Handling Practices

Knowing that there are different types of data also means there are different ways of handling them. Data handling practices vary depending on the context.

For example, there are many different ways to do data storage, data sharing, and data collecting.

Privacy awareness training should cover best practices for collecting, storing, accessing, and sharing different types of data.

For example, when it comes to personal or sensitive personal data, employees need to understand the importance of obtaining proper consent from individuals before collecting their information.

They also need to be aware of secure storage methods such as encryption or password protection to ensure that this information remains confidential.

Cybersecurity Best Practices

Cybersecurity best practices are simple yet effective measures anyone can use to enhance their online safety. These practices include simple suggestions, such as thinking before clicking unknown links, creating stronger passwords, and avoiding clicking on spam emails.

You may also want to cover physical security measures, such as locking down devices and securing sensitive data. Additionally, regular software updates and backups are crucial in protecting against cyber threats.

What Makes a Good Privacy Awareness Training Program?

Not all privacy awareness programs are effective in educating employees. In order to train employees to be efficient cybersecurity specialists, the program needs to be engaging with elements to promote further learning. Engagement can come in the form of content that encourages hands-on learning and visual elements.

Below are some suggestions on what to do to create engaging content for a privacy awareness training program.

Content Videos

Videos are a great way to show how to do something visually. A video can break down concepts into steps that are easy to follow and can be repeated until the process is done correctly.

Consider including interactive modules or videos of case studies that help make learning the material more engaging.

Quizzes and Assessments

Most people don’t enjoy being quizzed on learning materials. However, it is an effective way to gauge someone's knowledge of the subject. Test scores can also help identify areas of weakness that could be improved through further learning.

Provide Feedback

Learning is impossible without giving back proper feedback. Sometimes, it can be hard for students to face criticism for failing to do something. Rather than making it appear as a penalty, be encouraging and try to promote a culture that makes it easier for students to ask questions about their course materials.

Reward Excellence

One of the best ways to boost motivation is to give rewards to those who do well. Rewards can mean many things, such as recognition, praise, or something that shows they completed their training. Friendly competitions could also be leveraged to make it more engaging for employees to learn and work harder towards their goals.

Final Words

Privacy awareness training programs should not be overlooked by businesses. Good privacy is what keeps a business safe from cyber criminals who will stop at nothing to destroy everything that a business has established.

If you are a business owner who wants to implement a privacy awareness program, feel free to contact our experts at Captain Compliance.

Our experts will work with you to develop a privacy awareness training program that suits your business’s cyber security needs. Don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.

FAQs

Which Teams Should Receive Training Courses?

The privacy awareness training program is important for all employees who work in data-handling activities.

This includes IT, customer support, human resources, legal and executive staff. A data privacy consultant can help tailor the training program based on the business needs.

Learn more about data privacy consultants in this article.

Does GDPR Require Employee Training?

No, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does not explicitly require employee training.

However, it is strongly recommended for organizations to provide regular training sessions on data protection and privacy laws in order to ensure compliance with GDPR requirements.

Learn more about GDPR and its principles from this article.

Are There Different Traning Requirements From Each State in The U.S.?

Yes, training can differ from state to state because some states have additional data laws that apply to them. For example, if you deal with Californian customer data, you will need to abide by CPRA.

Learn more about state-level compliance services from this article.

Are Privacy Awareness Training Programs Exspenive?

The price of implementing a privacy awareness training program varies depending on the size of the business and its needs. The more data the business has, the more extensive the training program should be.

Learn more about building a privacy program that is right for your business in this article.