How will my vendor prevent privacy breach?

New privacy laws and regulations expose your company to significant financial penalties, not to mention embarrassment and reputational damage, if you don't use reasonable care to protect the personal information you collect from your employees and customers.

Because of these exposures, it is important to ensure that document storage vendors handling information on your behalf are focused on eliminating the possibility of data breach.

Operational controls

Your vendor should have detailed, written operational procedures that are strictly enforced and audited on a regular basis to ensure compliance.

Make sure chain of custody is thoroughly documented each time your information is handled, with barcode scanning at every point of contact, and that you have online access to chain of custody histories for each item.

Employee screening and training

Your vendor's employees should be background checked and drug tested, and each one should sign a confidentiality agreement.

Employees should receive regular training on both information handling and privacy.