Data protection in services and support roles: a qualitative research amongst ICT professionals

Customers expect their data to be protected and not used in a manner inconsistent. The protection of their data is paramount to customers, and they evaluate ICTs in part on how well they handle and protect it from being stolen or used improperly. In many industries customers are specifically mandated to evaluate how ICTs firms protects their data. When customers create an account with ICTs firms, or use their services, they expect that a set of specific rules around how ICTs are used to manage their information. This qualitative research studied which recommendations service and support professionals should follow in their daily tasks to ensure customer data protection. It present 12 recommendations: Data classification (three categories: low, medium and high business impact), Encryption security tools, Password protection, Services tools for data collection and storage, Who access data, How many access data, Testing customer data, Geographic rules, Data retention, Data minimization, Escalating issues, and Readiness and training. This paper is intended to help ICTs how to apply key data protection principles on their daily work. Provides important data protection recommendations that ICTs are expected to apply when handle customer data. By handling customer data safely, ICTs firms build trust and loyalty.