Tracking Influential Privacy Laws in this Risky Time? Printer & In-Plant Must Read

In the US it is the legislative season. More than 30 states have new privacy regulations on the docket when their legislatures meet this year, stepping in behind states that already have legislation that is in force or will go into force in the next year. There are changes in GDPR, and ongoing litigation changing the way the courts view legislation that has already been passed and put into force. For any company that handles data, these are laws that require attention.

Begin with a review of the data you accept and manage. Even work that does not contain PII or PHI should have a retention policy that makes sense for the business. Work like user and owner’s manuals, pharmaceutical instructions for use, and educational material may have copyrights and regulatory requirements associated with them. Ask your insurance company about risks you may be incurring if you are retaining print files, datasets, and intellectual property belonging to your clients. Ask if you need additional clauses in your contracts to cover the data.

Have ongoing conversations with your legal team. If you are taking on a new job with data or intellectual property components, review your policies and their requirements. If there is any ambiguity, talk with the legal team to ensure you are setting up the contract appropriately. You may want to update your insurance team as well.

If there is any good news in all the new legislation and the lawsuits that follow, it is that the courts are tending to set a high bar for who can and cannot claim damages and who they can target. Remember that to stay up-to-date on privacy legislation you can look at the tracker hosted by the International Association of Privacy Professionals, which is found here.

The Solimar Connection
Pat is so right! Well, she normally is with printing experience that goes back to the 1970s. She has been watching data and privacy topics literally since before computers were common in printing environments. How does the above relate back to what we do at Solimar Systems? Workflow software like our Chemistry™ platform of modular and commercially off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions naturally deals with data. Since 1991, our software has been trusted and relied upon in the transactional communications production and delivery markets. Whether those communications were statements, invoices, bills, trade confirmations, mortgage documents, healthcare communications, education, or government notices, the need for data security and privacy was important in 1991 and has only increased in importance today. Now, we aim to serve customers from transactional, direct mail, commercial print, labels, packaging and more. And our leadership in the PDF file type standard is helping drive significant ROI boosts for our customers. Learn more about how we can keep data secure by leveraging our Chemistry platform. This video overview is helpful to watch or listen to on the go while you are accomplishing a workout, commuting, or generally handling all life throws at us.

Want to learn more, please contact us with any questions or challenges we might be able to help solve in your print or digital communications production environment workflow processes.