Speaker 1: Hello there. Welcome to this course on workplace confidentiality training. Depending on the type of work you do, the position you have, or your sector of employment, it's very likely that your employer will have given you guidelines on the need for workplace confidentiality. If you are a business owner or self-employed, you will already be aware of its importance to your practices to some extent. This training is designed to raise your awareness of this subject to an acute level and ensure your business information is safely protected. First of all, let's start with the basics. What exactly are we referring to when discussing workplace confidentiality? Essentially, it is the appropriate and responsible behaviour that applies to any important information that is processed during business activities. In most cases, the uncontrolled sharing or leaking of this type of data can potentially lead to outcomes that will be predominantly negative for a company, affecting its effectiveness, integrity or reputation. Whether you are aware of it or not, every business organisation holds confidential information that must be kept secure. At the very least, it will include data such as workers' salary details, employment finance records, organisational bank accounts, customer contact details, sales figures and projections, upcoming events and promotions, computer passwords and online security systems. In addition to personal records and business data, there may be other pieces of information that could harm the performance of a business should they become well-known. Think of how many food-based companies have secret ingredients in their products, which their competitors could copy if they were made aware of them. What about details leaking to the media from a doctor's office about a celebrity's surgical procedure? The potential scenarios for such negative incidents are nearly endless, and almost all of them could arise from a chance comment from an employee or poor data protection. Any sensitive information can reach the ears, eyes or hands of outside sources if we're not careful in how we conduct our work. For instance, internal business communications could easily be made known to others if employees choose to discuss classified outcomes with colleagues or individuals outside of work, share organisational processes or business methods with staff from rival corporations, whether intended or not, talk to the press or general public about controversial subjects without the involvement of the executive board mistreatment. So it's easy to understand how and why every organisation and company has information that should not be freely shared or distributed inappropriately. They will have protocols and policies in place that uphold the principles of maintaining workplace confidentiality. This will apply as much to any customer records that are needed for everyday duties as they will to top-secret projects that may be planned by the biggest manufacturers worldwide. The security of confidential information can be at its most vulnerable state when people become accustomed to sharing elements of their work practices in a social or casual capacity. Risks could even arise from non-malicious behaviour such as sharing a personal opinion about a colleague, manager or workplace policies with family members and friends, discussing a colleague's attempts at looking for a job outside the company, forwarding private emails or documents outside of the business network, revealing business information that was overheard in a conversation or as part of office gossip. Regardless of whether it is intentional or merely an innocent act of personal sharing, this type of social engagement can be risky for any business. Professionals in any employment sector will pride themselves on never intentionally disclosing business information to others, even if they have left the company. Some organisations place such a high value on workplace confidentiality that they will encourage their staff to sign confidentiality agreements, ensuring that specific business data cannot legally be shared with rival companies. Although we will discuss legalities in a later lesson, it should be noted early on that an organisation that collects an archive's customer or client data must observe UK privacy regulations. In other words, they cannot legally share personal or sensitive information unless they have the owner's consent or they are special circumstances. This would cover such pieces of information as customer account details, copyrighted food recipes, unique manufacturing processes, financial strategies and projected figures, website traffic numbers, property plans and construction work pending approval. Data Protection Act, DPA and UK versions of the General Data Protection Regulations, UK GDPR, ensures that gathered information is used responsibly. However, apart from a signed non-disclosure agreement, NDAs, there isn't one specific piece of legislation governing workplace confidentiality. However, it is accepted as common law in the UK, meaning that employees and authorities have successfully prosecuted those who breach confidentiality expectations, resulting in fines or imprisonment in some cases. Let's create a few scenarios that can help to illustrate the importance of breaching workplace confidentiality. These are all entirely fictional but will hopefully underline the main principles. Let's meet Jack and Jim. Jack works for the Excellent Chicken chain of fast food outlets, famous for their crispy coating on their meat portions. Jim works for Super Chicken, which is not as successful, however they are both friends outside of work. Whilst drinking with Jim, Jack mentions how surprised he is about the secret ingredient in the coating, which is a mixture of ground ginger and seaweed, giving it that distinct taste. Two weeks later, Super Chicken launches their own new product, which is said to taste as good as their competitors and for a lower price. Excellent Chicken sees profits drop, while Super Chicken becomes the market leader and Jim gets a promotion. It's easy to see what happened there. Jim fed the secret ingredient back to his business, where both he and his company benefited from the gathered knowledge. Jack may or may not realise the damage that he has done, but if his bosses find out, his work position may become unattainable, and he could even be sued if he signed a non-disclosure agreement. This was all because he was being sociable and not realising the impact of his information sharing could have. Even if Jim had better ethics and was a better friend, someone could have overheard this conversation and used it to their advantage. Here's another example. This time we'll meet Brian and Bob, who have entirely different career paths. Brian is a member of the police who is assigned to the Serious Crime Squad and is investigating a bank robbery. Bob is a local reporter for a news agency covering the story, and they both visit the same coffee shop at 10am on a Friday. Bob is standing behind Brian, who is in the queue with another uniformed colleague talking about work. Brian mentions a special operation regarding the robbery taking place at 10pm, and also a local farm that may be involved. Bob overhears all this, puts the details together and writes a report for the agency. The details instantly leak onto social media, and the criminals involved quickly absconds the country. The details of the leak are never established, but the suspects got away, and the police force was humiliated and subjected to an investigation. Bob may have got an interesting story there, but the breach in confidentiality is on two fronts. Brian should have been more careful about the way he discusses work issues. To some extent, Bob should have also been aware of the consequences of his actions, and that he is responsible for not misusing information. During World War II, a popular saying said, loose lips sink ships. This meant that anybody with classified information could potentially reveal wartime strategies to spies if they discussed them openly. To a lesser extent, that kind of idiom still holds true today, but it's just as likely to originate from keystrokes as lip movements. In the 21st century, the source of a confidentiality breach will almost always have a digital trail. Email and social media conversations should be considered to be as potentially risky as a loud conversation in a public space. This means that workplace confidentiality also needs to consider factors such as unencrypted data and poorly secured records, hacking and malware on computer systems, theft of IT devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, improper disposal of physical and digital information, lack of employee awareness or training, naivety about the impact of disclosures. That completes the first lesson of this course. We have spent time taking a high-level look at the importance of workplace confidentiality and how awareness of it must be appreciated by a workforce and all of its team members. Join us in the next lesson where we will focus on the business aspects of confidentiality and more of the risks associated with it. See you soon.