Organizations provide employee training on a wide range of subjects: anti-harassment; ethics; diversity, equity & inclusion; cybersecurity; anti-bribery and corruption; and so forth. Each of these subjects is fundamental to ensuring secure growth for any organization, and it is not different when it comes to Privacy and Data Protection.
Many regulations and industry codes – such as PIPEDA, GDPR, LGPD, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and ISO/IEC 27002 – directly or indirectly require privacy awareness training. In the end, these rules and standards demand companies adopt education measures, orientation, training, control, and supervision of their employees, with the propagation of the importance of proper data processing, ensuring privacy protection.
Even if these requirements were not in effect, it’s always important to keep in mind that employees are one of the weakest links to security incidents around the world1, which not rarely involves personal data.
An effective training program can strengthen this weak link preventing difficult situations. From this boosting in the knowledge of policies, principles and best practices, multiple advantages can arise from a well-done Privacy Awareness Training Program.
Your entity will improve the standardization of certain activities, avoiding missteps and saving time and consequently money for your business. Well-done training is also a tool that can assist talent retention since people will feel more comfortable performing their daily functions.
Likewise, it prepares employees for higher responsibilities since it actively protects company assets and makes them more aware of the business risks and needs.
A Privacy Awareness Training should include, at least: the main risks that staff will face in their daily tasks, education about the role and access to the organization’s Data Protection Officer, and adequate knowledge and tools to securely work with personal information, whether it be from clients, employees, or vendors.
Besides the content, the form is likewise a critical element to keep in mind when designing your privacy training program. The trainer’s knowledge and familiarity with legislation and operationalization of data protection and privacy practices is the starting point. The trainer must provide the necessary information and answer any questions accurately. Ultimately, it is crucial to avoid overwhelming employees with long training sessions, which do not provide practical information or are full of lengthy documents to read.
Finally, providing initial training and no other measures are not enough. It is necessary to include continuing education in your program in several formats, such as role-based sessions, internal quizzes, or “privacy champions” designation.
These are the foundations of a Privacy Awareness Training Program that can assist organizations in compliance, avoiding fines, and improving their image towards customers, clients, vendors, and investors.
Hitachi Systems Security Privacy Experts will offer a FREE WEBINAR on February 3rd, 2022, to help you better understand how a Privacy Awareness Training Program is established in a very practical way. Exceptionally during this webinar, our team of privacy experts will provide a basic training to employees based on worldwide applicable best practices and privacy principles.
Register here!
