In the world of digital transformation, digital employees, or AI-driven software assistants, are increasingly found in the modern workplace. They help companies automate repetitive tasks, support customer service processes, and provide analytical insights. But with the benefits of digital employees, important issues in the areas of privacy and security also come to the fore. How do you ensure that your digital employee is a reliable addition without breaking into sensitive company information?
In this blog post, we discuss the crucial aspects of privacy and safety among digital employees and give you concrete tips on how to take the right measures.
Why is Privacy Crucial for Digital Workers?
Digital employees often work with the same data as human colleagues, such as customer information, financial data and internal business reports. If this sensitive information is not properly protected, it can lead to serious data breaches, loss of confidential information or even reputational damage. Privacy by design and security by design are therefore not a luxury, but an absolute necessity when implementing digital employees.
- Data Storage: Where and How Is Data Secured?
One of the first concerns among digital employees is data storage. Many digital assistants use cloud storage, but where exactly is that data stored? Are the servers local, within the EU, or in another country with less stringent privacy laws?
Tips:
- Opt for local data storage: Choose pre-storage locations in countries with strict privacy regulations, such as within the EU, where the AVG (GDPR) applies.
- Encryption: Ensure that all stored data is encrypted, both at rest and during transmission (in transit).
- Data anonymization: Consider anonymizing sensitive data when direct identification is not necessary.
- Data Flow: Understand the Way Data Takes
Another important aspect is the data flow — the route that data takes within your systems and possibly also to external systems. For digital employees, the data flow can be complex, especially if they have access to multiple data sources, such as CRM systems, SharePoint, or ERP software.
Important questions:
- What data is used and processed by the digital employee?
- Is this data shared with other applications or external systems?
- How is the data processed and who can access it?
Tips:
- Provide minimal access: Make sure that digital employees only have access to the data that is necessary to perform their tasks. This principle, also known as least privilege, limits the risk of unauthorised access.
- Monitor the data flow: Use monitoring tools to monitor the data flow and detect anomalies in the data flows.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Implement DLP policies to ensure that sensitive information is not accidentally or intentionally shared with unauthorized parties.
- Access and Authentication: Prevent Unauthorized Access
Strong access control is essential when using digital employees. Who can view what data? And how do you verify that someone actually has the right rights? Provide layered authentication to limit access to those who really need it.
Tips:
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Deploy MFA to add an extra layer of security.
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Use roles to control what actions a user or digital employee can perform.
- Regular audits: Perform regular access and authorization audits to ensure that only authorized users have access.
- Privacy by Design: Build Safety From the Start
Many companies first implement a digital employee and only then think about security. A much better approach is to incorporate privacy by design and security by design from the first step. This means that you already take data protection and compliance with privacy laws into account during the development phase.
Tips:
- Data minimization: Collect and process only the data that is absolutely necessary for the performance of the task.
- Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA): Perform a PIA regularly to assess whether you meet the requirements of the privacy legislation.
- Secure interfaces: Make sure that all external interfaces (APIs, connectors) that digital workers use are properly secured and comply with the latest security standards.
- Transparency and Control: Give Users Control
If your digital employee processes data, users and customers have a right to transparency. They must be able to understand what data is being collected, for what purposes, and how long it is stored. This is not only good practice, but also a legal obligation under many privacy laws.
Tips:
- Transparency documentation: Provide clear documentation of data flows and processing purposes.
- Data access and correction: Allow users to view, correct, or delete their data.
- Logging and reporting: Log all the digital employee's activities and provide regular reports to promote transparency.
How Valuso AI Ensures Privacy and Security
At Valuso AI, we take privacy and security very seriously. Our digital employees are designed to handle company data securely and comply with the most stringent security standards. We do not store data with third parties and data is not used to train data. In addition, we offer the possibility to use self-hosted models that do not use external APIs. By using our own infrastructure, we maintain full control over the data flow and can guarantee that your data always remains safe.
Our focus is on creating digital employees that relieve companies without worrying about data leaks or privacy issues. We believe in a safe digital workplace that harnesses the power of AI without sacrificing the privacy of users and organizations.
Conclusion
Privacy and safety are not preconditions, but fundamental pillars when using digital employees. By paying attention to data storage, data flow, access, and transparency, you can optimize the deployment of digital employees within your organization without running risks. Build a strong foundation and build your digital future in a way that ensures safety and trust.
Want to learn more about how Valuso AI integrates security and privacy into its digital workforce? Then contact us for an informal conversation.
