Business owners are barraged with rules and requirements for safeguarding customer information and protecting consumer privacy. And stories of data or privacy breaches seem to be in the news constantly.
But what about your privacy as a business owner and individual yourself? If you Google “small-business privacy” you’ll get tons of results on protecting customer privacy. But almost nothing about protecting your own.
For millions of small-business owners, the lines between personal and business privacy are thin. You want your business to be famous, but that doesn’t mean you want your personal finances to be public. Nor do you want to be inundated with spam or junk mail.
Business owners are clamoring to reclaim a measure of privacy in their business and personal lives. Some of the same technology that is helping small firms compete – from social media to cloud-based software – is also putting privacy at greater risk.
Surveys show that respect for privacy has become a key deciding factor that influences business owners to select one vendor over another or to recommend a product or service provider to fellow entrepreneurs.
What can you do as a business owner to protect yourself, your business and your privacy? Here are some privacy-protection ideas:
• Know your privacy rights. Start with guarding your personal Social Security number (SSN) more closely. When dealing with government or banking matters, your SSN may be required. But while many businesses request your SSN, you are not legally required to provide it in most cases unless it involves an IRS notification of some kind.
• Make your domain registrations private. When you register a domain name on the Internet, you’ll be asked to provide details such as your business name, address, phone number, email contact and others. That information goes into a massive database and can be one reason your email address winds up on some spammer’s list. Most leading domain registrars let you protect your information with “private registration” services that mask your identity.
• Fight back against telemarketers, spam and other unwanted and intrusive ads. When you do get a call, don’t just hang up. Ask who the caller represents and request that your name be placed on their internal do-not-call list. You can also register a number with the federal government’s National Do Not Call Registry. •
Daniel Kehrer can be reached at editor@bizbest.com
