With the growth of modern technology in this era, the rise in cyberattacks and online threats has increased as well which could potentially harm your sensitive or confidential information. Read more about What does an accounts receivable analyst do?
If you aren’t able to take the necessary measures for safeguarding your data, you could potentially lose your privacy or leave yourself vulnerable to identity theft, financial theft etc.
There are different forms of sensitive and confidential information. However, they generally comprise of such kinds of information that you never intended for your organization to disclose.
Common examples of such kinds of information include:
- Emails and passwords.
- Credentials.
- Personal data and addresses.
- Financial records.
However, there is a clear distinction between sensitive and confidential information.
Confidential information is also called personal information.
Any kind of organization that is able to collect, use or disclose the personal and sensitive information is obligated under different laws.
However, when it comes to sensitive information, these laws are even stricter. The reason for this are the effects of disclosing the sensitive information and its ill-effects that it may cause on the person?s life.
There are different ill-effects like discrimination, identity theft or mistreatment that a person might have to face just because his personal information was compromised.?
Due to this, sensitive information is going to attract more scrutiny under privacy laws and businesses that handle sensitive information need to be more careful than ever.
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What is Confidential Information?
Confidential or personal information is a self-explanatory term which refers to any kind of particular information that revolves around a particular person or a person that could be identified easily.
It doesn?t matter if this information is credible or not, it is still considered as confidential information that, in no sense needs to be disclosed.
Some of the common examples of confidential information are:
- Names
- Addressed
- DOB
- Signature
- Phone Number
- Bank Account details.
Protection of confidential information is a necessity by federal legislation and could be protected strictly by provincial or federal regulation. Not only that but this kind of information also needs to be protected from any kind of unauthorized access or modification.
Any kind of access to confidential information is also restricted to such parties that have proper authorization for accessing any such kind of information.
What is Sensitive Information?
Sensitive information does comprise of personal information, but there?s a lot to it as well.
In case sensitive information is mishandled in any way, it is going to have very adverse effects or could pose a risk to the privacy of an individual or a firm as well.
Some of the common examples of sensitive information are:
- Political backgrounds or opinions.
- Religious or philosophical beliefs.
- Membership of different parties.
- Health Information.
- Genetic Information.
- Biometric Information.
In case sensitive data is released without any kind of authorization, it could cause harm, embarrassment or other harmful things to the owner of the data as it is intended for limited access.
One of the major differences between the sensitive and confidential data is the duration and the level of harm that?s involved.
For the sake of protection of this data, it is recommended by federal regulations.
Only those parties need to have access to sensitive data who have a legitimate purpose and have the consent of the owner.
Information that has been termed as Sensitive is potentially going to become classified as Confidential if the information could be reconstructed for revealing personal information.
Protection of Data accounts receivable analyst do
There are different measures for keeping your data safe and sound. There are regulations for protecting this information for businesses and individuals.
Here are some of the important ones:
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): The health providers of the US need to take proper steps to protect the PHI of the patients.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Different kinds of businesses that process data belonging to EU citizens need to protect the same data and notify the parties in case a privacy breach occurs.
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): A lot of companies that are renowned in processing the credit card information are needed to protect this data and conduct the transactions with a very secure, encrypted network.
Gramm Leach Bliley Act (GLBA): The financial institutions belonging to the US need to disclose how they are sharing the information of the customers.
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA): Educational institutions need to have the consideration of the students over 18 years to release the records like disciplinary information, schedules etc.