Long-term Storage of Customer Information

The development of electronic data storage has substantially increases the rate of communication and work productivity to a level unobtainable before the invention of the internet. As more and more communication and data processing is being done online, t the majority of recordkeeping information is also being done online.

Online storage offers much greater security against loss or damage to records than paper documents.  It also can make accessing online data is faster than obtaining physical copies. But keeping a file online for several years represents different security issues than keeping a physical one for that length of time.

This does not mean online storage is fundamentally unsafe, only that the rules have changed. Those who use online data storage need to understand the differences. Long-term storage of customer information, or archiving, complicates record keeping and requires us to fundamentally alter our assumptions about how and what to store.  

Protecting your customers first

Customer trust is increasingly difficult for businesses to maintain as data breaches become more frequent. Consumers are being more careful of what companies they are willing to entrust information to since shopping at even the largest of companies is no longer a guarantee of security. For example Target suffered substantial financial losses this year from the ongoing fallout of its Black Friday breach in 2013. Protecting consumer information comes down to having rigorous company security standards such as cutting edge software, data encryption, and internal strategies on handling cybersecurity issues.

Collecting information responsibly

Keeping only information which is in use and is necessary to short-term operations is the most pragmatic collection solution. However many industries (such as healthcare) keep a variety of information archived for years due to regulatory requirements and plans for future use.

Long term archiving can be risky.  The more information being held, the more appealing it is to hackers. Additionally larger breaches get garner greater media publicity, which can be severely damaging to brand reputation.  You can never obtain perfect security.  Therefore it becomes critical to lowering your breach risk by retaining only strictly necessary information and proactively guarding it from threats.

Creating a records management policy for your company can help you determine your need to store and archive data. This creates uniform consistency in capturing, organizing, indexing, storing, and deleting client information. Have a plan for what information your business needs in order to function. Also know what legal liabilities you are under for collecting it and what could happen in the event of a breach.

For more information on data storage strategies, contact the Goosmann Law Firm at info@goosmannlaw.com or (712) 226-4000.