What’s wrong with a former employee’s name still being in our system?

As soon as employees leave your company, you should become active. Because there are several reasons why it is problematic if names of former employees are still present in your system:

• Data protection
  • If your company is subject to data protection laws such as the GDPR, or CCPA, you are legally required to process data in accordance with those laws. This includes purpose limitation, retention limitation, and data minimization. If you keep a former employee’s name in your system when it is no longer necessary, it is a violation of these principles. Legal consequences and high fines are the result.
• Data security
  • If a former employee’s personal information is not adequately protected, it may be vulnerable to unauthorized access or misuse. Damage to reputation, financial loss or other harm to the individual is risked.
• Unintended consequences
  • Keeping a former employee’s name in your system can have undesirable consequences, such as sending marketing materials that he/she may no longer want to receive. The accidental disclosure of the former employee’s personally identifiable information may also occur.

Overall, it is important to regularly review and update your privacy policies. This will ensure that personally identifiable information is retained only as long as necessary and in accordance with privacy laws and policies.