Dive Brief:

• Half of employees in a kCura survey said their employers either lack policies on data retention and personal device use, or the employees are unaware of such policies. KCura, a data management firm, surveyed 1,013 office workers between Dec. 28, 2016, and Jan. 18, 2017.
• The survey was designed to identify the connection between employees’ communication habits and the explosion of unstructured data in the workplace. KCura uses a platform call Relativity, which helps 70 Fortune 100 companies and the U.S Department of Justice manage large volumes of data used in investigations, litigation and compliance.
• Although 98% of the survey respondents said they cared about personal privacy, they continued to send personal emails (47%), conduct personal activity on the Internet (45%), send personal texts (40%) and use messaging apps to send personal messages.

Dive Insight:

The survey results conclude that employees’ communication habits put employers at risk for discovery costs. More bluntly: Employee emails, Internet use, texting habits and other personal communication is limitless and discoverable in investigations, compliance proceedings and litigation.  

With the explosion of personal devices that most employees can opt to bring to work, employers face an unprecedented amount of potential data security risks. IoT devices, which are making their way to the workplace, will only exacerbate these issues. Businesses will want to invest in cybersecurity with the goal of preventing IoT systems from being exploited, as well as improve employee training to prevent cyber breaches system-wide. Accidental employee error is, after all, one of the biggest causes of employer cyber breaches currently.

Employers must listen to workers who say they’re unaware of workplace policies on using devices for personal reasons and data retention. The risk of either not having policies or not communicating them effectively to employees could be costly.