Disclosure of personal sensitive data may lead to discrimination, abuse or harm. This kind of information can be defined as personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, sexual life, political opinions, membership in parties, trade unions, religious, philosophical or political associations, as well as any data that can reveal an individual's health and genetic condition.

Sensitive data retained by companies include personal identifiable information (such as date of birth, address, age, gender, and contact information), location and health information, bank account details, employment records, credit and debt information, fingerprints, security and identity information and criminal records.

Which are the broad principles that govern sensitive data?

1. Confidentiality: sensitive data should be protected from unauthorized access.

2. Entirety: sensitive data must be secured against unauthorized revisions.

3. Availability: sensitive data must be accessible to authorized users.Disponibilità: i dati sensibili devono essere accessibili agli utenti autorizzati.

4. Traceability: sensitive data changes must be tracked.

5. Security: sensitive data must be secured against cyber-attacks.

6. Supervision: access to sensitive data should be restricted to authorized users.

7. Accountability: organizations must be responsible for the security of sensitive data.

Companies should strictly follow these principles to ensure that sensitive data are handled securely and in accordance with applicable regulations. The general principles provide guidance for the security of sensitive data, protecting companies from possible sanctions and legal liabilities. In addition, the broad principles can assist companies ensure the confidentiality, entirety, traceability and availability of corporate data, supporting to protect the company's reputation and data security.

How to ensure data confidentiality? Through the techniques mentioned below, it is possible to achieve solid confidentiality of stored information within the tracking files:

1. Implement a strong authentication system. 2.Use encryption when storing or transferring sensitive data. 3. Restrict access to sensitive data to authorized members of the organization. 4. Use a firewall to protect sensitive data from unauthorized external access. 5. Use a threat tracking and detection solution to recognize and block unauthorized access attempts. 6. Use identity management solutions to control access to sensitive data. 7. Use configuration management solutions to track alteration to sensitive data.

How to ensure processing lawfulness

To ensure processing lawfulness of personal data, companies must follow the data protection legislation. This involves providing indication about how personal data are collected, used, stored, and transferred. Companies must also ensure the consent from the data owner before any processing of personal data.

Sensitive data: consent issue

The relevance of consent in the processing of personal data is a topical issue. The regulation of personal data protection has been strengthened by the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, and the need for proper consent to data processing is one of its main points.
Consent is essential to the lawful processing of personal data. Since it is an unambiguous expression of will, it must be explicit, specific and informed. Consent must be clearly requested and adequate information must be provided on how the data will be processed.

Besides, consent must always be revocable. Agreement must be obtained before any processing of personal data. For example, when collecting information about a customer or user, it is necessary to provide clear information about how the data will be used. Successful approval must be demonstrated and recorded. Consent is an important part of GDPR compliance; the lack of it can result in punitive penalties. For example, noncompliant processing can result in sanctions up to €20 million or 4 percent of the organization's annual turnover.

Transparency in personal data processing

The Big Data era is generating a huge amount of sensitive and personal data. This data has been collected from many sources, including websites, mobile devices, social media and others.

As the amount of data collected has increased, it has become increasingly important for businesses to ensure transparency in the management of sensitive data. Management transparency of sensitive data has become an essential part of data security. It is important for companies to be transparent about how they handle their customers' sensitive data. This means that enterprise must ensure that information owners know exactly what protection procedures are in place. Companies must ensure that all their security systems comply with current legislations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

As already anticipated, GDPR is a European law governing the processing of personal and sensitive data. The law stipulates certain obligations for companies that process sensitive data, including transparency. Transparency must be ensured at every stage of the data management process, from collection to storage. Moreover, companies must ensure that their customers are always informed about how data is being processed. Customers must be informed about the application of privacy policies, including how data is accessed, modified and deleted.

If customers have questions, or concerns, companies must also provide them with appropriate support. This means they must take appropriate data security measures, such as encryption, IT system security, staff training and so on.

Transparency in sensitive data processing is an important part of data protection. Companies must ascertain their transparency and provide their customers with the needed information to ensure an effective management of their personal data. In addition, enterprise must assure that sensitive data is protected and maintained securely. This is the only way to ensure secureness of sensitive data.

bitCorp Team