{"id":8299,"date":"2018-04-27T04:33:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T11:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/blog\/recollect-culture-security\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T12:43:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:43:47","slug":"recollect-culture-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/blog\/recollect-culture-security\/","title":{"rendered":"ReCollect – A Culture of Security"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent weeks, privacy and data have been at the forefront of the news. The first instance involved <\/span>a wave of headlines<\/span><\/a> about how social media platforms managed (or sometimes mismanaged) users\u2019 data. More recently, your inbox has likely been flooded by technology companies updating user agreements to ensure they conform with the EU\u2019s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). <\/span><\/p>\n

Since arriving at ReCollect in 2014, I\u2019ve seen a dramatic shift in the conversation around data and privacy among our customers and users. It was sometimes a struggle to get organizations to understand why privacy and data security matter so much \u2013 even to a solid waste department \u2013 and why security and privacy are core to our company\u2019s culture. And getting it right often easily went unnoticed. In those early days, customers loved our products\u2019 convenience, ease of use, and ability to help them educate and communicate with their residents. Today, they still love these benefits, but thankfully they also value our regular security audits, our privacy rules, our security culture, and how some employees contribute to organizations like the <\/span>Electronic Frontier Foundation<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

As both a user of online government services and an employee, I\u2019m grateful to see the growing recognition among governments of data privacy and security. Data is a resource whose value has been heralded for some time. Here at ReCollect, the data we collect about usage and queries helps our customers better understand their residents, answer questions more effectively, increase diversion, and generally be more proactive. But, as with any resource, data itself can be recycled or repurposed for ends other than those for which it is initially collected. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even with the best of intentions, any system attempting to keep data private and secure is only as good as the technology and practices that support it. Unfortunately, as we have <\/span>recently seen<\/span><\/a>, a lack of secure practices can easily <\/span>undermine privacy<\/span><\/a>. The consequence goes beyond more spam in everyone\u2019s inbox or the potential for fraud in the short term \u2014 the longer term consequence is that these events impair trust not only in a specific vendor or industry (including us), but also in the governments that provision these services.<\/span><\/p>\n

At ReCollect, we believe the collection of any data should serve a single purpose \u2014 the delivery and improvement of the service for which it was provided. To do otherwise, intentionally or not, would be to undermine the trust that customers place in us to provide a framework of communications for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Data Cannot Be Private Unless it is Secure<\/b><\/h3>\n

Vendors of Software-as-a-Service everywhere and in every sector should now be routinely facing some potentially tough questions, such as:<\/span><\/p>\n