The General Data Protection Regulation is a European Union law that was implemented May 25, 2018, requiring organizations to safeguard personal data and uphold the privacy rights of anyone in EU territory. Since its passing, various governments around the world have been passing their own regulations to protect the privacy of their constituents. In US, California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which is already in effect. followed by the California Privacy Rights Act(CPRA), which will go in effect on Jan 01, 2023, with a look-back to Jan 1, 2022. Other US States as well as the Federal government are working on their own privacy regulations which are in various stages of the legislative pipeline.

An increasing number of mid-size to large organizations are working to figure out the most cost-effective, efficient and minimum risk way of complying with applicable regulations. One major challenge for these organizations is the need to demonstrate the compliance in a verifiable manner, in addition to implementing it. Failure to be compliant comes with large fines, additional government oversight, corrective action plans, and loss of reputation.

One of the most common cause of data and privacy violations is unintentional human error. Privacy and data protection training for employees is one of the ways for companies to demonstrate as well as ensure regulation compliance and accountability. This is a simple, high value and efficient way to reduce organization’s risk level. Training for all personnel, paired with greater automation and monitoring is a highly valuable way to maintain confidence in the company’s policies and security controls. In addition, data protection training allows an organization to build trust with the end users, improving consumer confidence.

Techniti has multiple ways to share knowledge and meet the training needs of an organization, Our team of experts writes blog posts, hosts webinars, sends out newsletters as well as provides e-learning as well as classroom training. Choosing the right method depends on the needs, size and role of the target group.

If your organization is highly dependent on Personally Identifiable Information (PII), you should consider training your entire staff. For more limited needs, choice can be made to start with a focus group and expand the training to the rest of the staff on an as-needed basis. In both cases, it will also help to have an expert privacy consultant at hand to guide the team on expectations, outcomes and monitoring.

Organizations processing personal data on a higher risk level, have to focus on data protection training. Eventually all businesses, whether the business focuses on personal data or not, should take data protection training seriously because the compliance regulations will affecting nearly all except the smallest organizations processing and holding the personal data of individuals, if your customers or staff are EU residents or residents of California.

It is essential that the management is well aware of various privacy regulations and consequences of both compliance as well as non-compliance. Responsibility over the business goes hand in hand with the responsibility about data protection. Instead of using the size of the company for identifying compliance needs, use the amount of personal data in terms of its volume and nature to guide your decision about the appropriate level of data protection training. 

Classroom trainings are a great way to receive individually focused training for specific group’s needs but since Covid19, many companies have chosen remote working for their employees. Remote working enables E-learning is a suitable option for all organizations from small start-ups to large multinational. Training can be provided without physical location constraints using online collaboration software.

For easy and efficient privacy and data protection training for your whole organization, check out Techniti’s e-Learning training here.

For more information about Techniti’s other solutions for data protection and privacy, click here.