Privacy is more important than ever for your business and your customers. Continued trust in your business practices, products and secure handling of your clients’ confidential and strategic information impacts your profitability. Your privacy policy is a promise to your customers that you will use and protect their information as they expect and in compliance with your legal obligations. Start with a simple and clear statement describing the information you collect about your customers (physical addresses, email addresses, browsing history, etc.), and what you do with it. Customers, your employees and your investors and owners increasingly expect you to make privacy a priority. There are also a growing number of regulations protecting customer and employee privacy and often costly penalties for privacy breaches. You will be held accountable for what you claim and offer in your policy. In other words, say what you do and do what you say, and post it clearly on your website. It’s also important to share your privacy policies, rules and expectations with all employees and partners who may come into contact with that information. Your employees need to know about your privacy policy and what it means for their day-to-day activities. Your privacy should address the following types of data: • Personally Identifiable Information: Often referred to as PII, this information includes such things as first and last names, home or business addresses, email addresses, credit card and bank account numbers, taxpayer identification numbers, patient numbers and Social Security numbers. It can also include gender, age and date of birth, city of birth or residence, driver’s license number, home and cell phone numbers. Depending on where you operate, it may include other information as well. • Personal Health Information: Whether you’re a healthcare provider with lots of sensitive patient information or you simply manage health or medical information for a small number of employees, it’s vital that you protect that information. A number of studies have found most consumers are very concerned about the privacy and protection of their medical records. They do not want their health information falling into the hands of hackers or identity thieves who might abuse it for financial gain. But they also may not want employees or co-workers prying into their personal health details. And they often don’t want future employers or insurers finding out about any medical conditions or history. • Customer information: This includes payment information such as credit or debit card numbers and verification codes, billing and shipping addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, purchasing history, buying preferences and shopping behavior.

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