Privacy-Related Training And Regulatory Compliance: Can Your Small Or Medium-Sized Business Survive Without It?

INTRODUCTION

For businesses large and small, compliance with federal, state and foreign privacy laws and regulations has become an essential business obligation. These laws govern a company's collection, storage, use, sharing and disposal of personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI) and payment card information (PCI).

A company's innocent or inadvertent failure to abide by these laws, or its failure to timely and fully disclose how it performs such tasks, can make it a target for regulatory proceedings and civil class actions. These lapses also can be a source of reputational damage to the business. In addition, a significant number of public and private entities simply are unaware of the laws that govern consumers' and employees' privacy rights and the associated risks and exposures.