🤫 Confidentiality
Confidential information is considered information which is not in the public domain or common knowledge.
Confidential information is information that is only shared with a few people and for a designated purpose.
The person/organisation which is receiving the information, generally cannot take advantage and use the information for their hain - such as giving the information out to unauthorised third parties, without permssion.
How to know if information is confidential#
- It may be labelled as confidential
- If someone has verbally told you, they may tell you it's confidential
Types of confidential information#
- Human resources
- Commercially sensitive information
- Access information
Human Resources#
- Name, date of birth, age, sex and address
- Current contact details of family
- Bank information
- Medical history or records
- Benefits / Perks (company car)
- Service records - recruitment & termination
- Salary
- Appraisals / Disciplinary
Commercially Sentitive Informationn#
- Trade secrets
- Customer lists
- Marketing strategies
- Formulas for a specific product
- Financial terms of a deal
- Operational data
- Cost information
- Manufacturing processes
- Identity of shareholders
- Revenue and cash flow data
Access information#
- Usernames
- Passwords
- Security clearance
- Access codes
- Multi-factor authentication
In the workplace#
It's important to keep confidentiality within a workplace to:
- Advere to data protection legislation
- Avoid loss of business or customers
- Avoid information being misused to commit illegal activity such as fraud
- Builds trust between employees and employers, and between business and customer
- Avoid loss of reputation
- Avoid legal action being taken against you
How can confidentiality be maintained?#
- Have a written contract which ensures employees know what information they'll have access to, how the information should be used and when, if ever, they would need to break confidentiality
- Treat personal data carefully and don't store infrmation for longer than needed
- Don't talk about the confidential information outside of the workplace
- For any informataion stored digitally, it's important that there are access controls securing it.
- If they're on paper, use a confidential waste bin
- Provide training to employees
Breach of confidentiality#
A breach of confidentiality is when private information is disclosed to a third party without the owners consent.
This can happen by accident or on purpose.
Legal remedies#
- An injunction may be granted. - This is where the individual or part who took the information is orderd to rerain from using the information and it could lead to other actions such as to recall or destroy the information.
- They may be granted compensation