Customer registration is essential for your future marketing activities. The more you know about your customers, the better you can address their needs. However, with customer registration comes customer data. And where there is customer data, there’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). When GDPR was introduced in May 2018, it received a lot of attention for a while, but that has somewhat diminished recently. Nevertheless, the regulation is still in effect, and it’s something you, as a business, don’t want to mishandle. Here are some handy tips to help you safely handle privacy-sensitive data in your daily operations.
Tip 1: Build a review step into your emails
Do you know the feeling of accidentally sending an email containing important information to someone who shouldn’t receive it? Sending an email to the wrong recipient has probably happened to everyone at some point. When sending emails, there may be privacy-sensitive information involved! Therefore, include a review step when sending emails to double-check both the content and the recipients. Prevention is better than cure.
Tip 2: Send email attachments securely
Let’s say you want a third party (a distributor) to send a Direct Mail campaign to your customers. For this, the distributor needs access to customer data. Or, perhaps you need to send a colleague a list of customers participating in a particular campaign. This is sensitive information that must not fall into the wrong hands. To send customer data securely by email, ensure the file is encrypted. This can be done by adding a password to the file. Verify that the file is indeed secured and then send the encrypted file and the password separately, for example, by sending the file via email and sharing the password via phone.
Tip 3: Share reports wisely
Sometimes you need to share reports with colleagues. If you export a report via TritonX, you can choose to export it to Excel via the compact export option. This compact export doesn’t include personal data. Additionally, data can be stored in personal cloud environments. However, ensure that these environments are secure and that the cloud services are located within Europe to comply with the same regulations! Always make sure that shared storage environments containing personal data are accessible only to authorized individuals.
Tip 4: Handle login credentials securely
Login credentials are personal, and that’s how they should remain, especially when they grant access to customer data. If an exception must be made because you’re on vacation and your colleagues urgently need access, share your login details in parts. Send your username separately from your password, preferably through different channels. For example, send your username via email and your password by SMS. Once your colleagues have accessed the information they needed, change your password immediately, so only you know it. To prevent this, ensure that each colleague has their own login credentials.
For your customer service department: never share login credentials over the phone with customers. If a customer has forgotten their login details, simply explain how they can reset their password themselves.
Tip 5: Limit access to customer data
Don’t give third parties, like a random marketing agency, access to your customer data without proper precautions. First, establish a processing agreement to ensure that they won’t misuse your customer data. If they do need access to your customer database, provide them with their own login account, so you don’t have to share your own credentials and can monitor how the data is being used.
Tip 6: Lock your computer
As a marketer and user of TritonX, you work with personal data. Make sure not to leave your computer unattended without locking it first. Choose a strong password—avoid passwords like “Welcome123” or “12345678.” A good password is long, feels random, and includes uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
Data Security as the foundation
In principle, it’s not that difficult to handle sensitive data safely, but it does require discipline. It’s up to you to establish good practices for yourself to minimize the risk of mistakes. And think about it this way: would you want your personal data to be handled securely? Of course, you would!
If you have any questions about safely handling customer data, please contact support@tritonx.cloud for more information.
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