The federal, Alberta and British Columbia Privacy Commissioners have created an online tool that will help small and medium-sized businesses better safeguard the personal information of customers and employees.
The Securing Personal Information: A Self-Assessment Tool for Organizations is a detailed online questionnaire and analysis tool that helps organizations gauge how well they are protecting personal information, in keeping with the applicable private-sector privacy law.
The tool is comprehensive and detailed, but also offers users the flexibility of focusing on areas most relevant to their own enterprise. The self-assessment and analysis process results in a framework that organizations can use to systematically evaluate and improve their data-security practices.
The Securing Personal Information is available via the commissioners’ websites: www.priv.gc.ca; www.oipc.ab.ca; and www.oipc.bc.ca.
To access all of the small business tools developed by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, click on: www.priv.gc.ca/resource/sbw/2011/index_e.cfm