Digimind’s approach to data protection and privacy

With the growing digitalization, businesses are now collecting large amounts of data. There are many regulations in place to give individuals more control of their personal data, one famous example being GDPR in Europe, but also the California Consumer Privacy Act in the US or the Personal Data Protection Act in Singapore…

At Digimind, a global leader in social listening and competitive intelligence SaaS software, we value the importance of the protection of personal data. Take a look at some of the measures we take to ensure data and privacy protection at Digimind.

“Our clients’ Legal units and external certification teams consider Digimind as a most mature player in the field of personal data privacy management” says Yann Guilain, VP of Services.

What is personal data?

Before we get into our data protection policies, it is important to know what personal data stands for. Personal data means data from a living individual who can be identified from that data. Under the protection of GDPR - which is explained later in this article -  this includes, among others,  the name, phone number, username and IP address of an individual.

Why is data protection important?

Data protection is important as it protects the privacy rights of individuals and the security of sensitive information. This ensures to not only protect companies from hacker attacks but also from security breaches from employees.
At Digimind, we have always considered data protection to be incredibly important. That is why we started with a data initiative and training back in march 2016, two years before the well-known GDPR. We knew how important this was going to be and is on this day.

What personal data is processed by Digimind?

We believe that transparency on data collection is a key part in making data protection better. The following data is processed by Digimind:

1. Digimind employees data 
2. Contact data relating to customers, suppliers and business partners
3. Navigation data on Digimind websites
4. Persona; data from users of our solutions
5. Data indexed from the internet by means of our software 

It is important to differentiate the data that’s being collected from employees with the data that is being stored on our intelligence listening software. All the data that is stored on the platform is data from people that posted it voluntarily online. In this article, we will refer to this data as ‘public online data’.

How does Digimind keep data secure?

Privacy by design

To make sure all data is protected, multiple regulations and measures have been taken into account. Our intelligence software has designed features  so our clients can choose their preferences on data security, such as privacy by design. 

Digimind has implemented a “Privacy by Design” policy, which means that from the moment we design and develop our solutions, we implement the right features so that we index only the data strictly necessary for the use that is pursued as recommended by the European Regulation. Two examples of our Privacy by Design policy:

• Digimind is offering a full data anonymization option as part of our “Privacy by Design” program. This applies specifically to Digimind Social. It allows our clients to ensure the maximum level of security you expect, and is beyond what the GDPR requires.
• With lifetime mention, unnecessary data that is not used anymore will be dynamically deleted.  All indexed mentions with a publication date prior to the selected time period will be deleted. 

In addition to the design above, we also implement technical and organizational measures to ensure the protection of data.

Technical measures

The technical measures for protection relate to the software, the equipment and the process of public online data.

• Cybersecurity: In general, Digimind has implemented all the basic level cybersecurity measures: firewalls, malware scans, anti-virus protection, patches and updating the software when required
• Physical security: All of the facilities that Digimind locates in have the necessary measures to prevent any unauthorized access to sites or specific technical areas. 
• Limited viewing: Only the personnel who need to access certain data and files are allowed to access it. 

Organizational measures 

The organizational measures relate to our employees, policies and training.

• Information security policy: With articles like these - as well as our security policy that is located online - our objective is to be transparent on our data protection. Security and privacy risk are addressed through the application of appropriate security controls and associated risk treatment plans. 
• Awareness and training: We have uploaded various data protection related courses on Digimind Academy, our own e-learning platform. The Digimind team is required to do a GDPR training before collecting any sorts of data.  Only the personnel who need to access the data are allowed to access it.

Compliance programs

Digimind is fully compliant with data protection regulations including the ones mentioned below. We regularly assess and update our procedures to ensure we are meeting the latest standards.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

For data transfers that take place outside of the EU, all subcontractors and companies we work with have to sign the Standard Contractual Clause (SCC), approved from the European Commission with Digimind. 

Want to learn more about these rights? They are elaborated further in our Data privacy Policy.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

Just like GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act is in place to protect the data privacy of citizens.    Digimind guarantees the privacy rights under California Consumer privacy act (CCPA) since January 1, 2020, which is seen as the highest standard of data protection in the United States. The CCPA protects Californian citizens with the following guidelines: The right to request information The right of deletion Facilitation of rights requested The rights to equal services and prices

Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) 

The Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) applies to organizations in Singapore. This regulation has gotten into full effect on July 2, 2014.  The PDPA includes the following points, which Digimind is compliant with Consent obligation Purpose limitation obligation Access and correction obligation Protection obligation Retention limitation obligation Transfer limitation obligations

To conclude, data protection and complying with the regulations is incredibly important. Here at digimind we are proud to say that we are complying with all regulations mentioned above, and have implemented our different policies to do so. 

Find out more about Digimind's approach to data protection by reading our Data Policy.

About Digimind

Digimind is the global leader in AI-Powered social listening platforms and market intelligence software, designed for brands and agencies who want to accelerate digital transformation through an insights-driven approach. Digimind’s best-in-class technology transforms social and online data into actionable business insights, enabling marketers to plan, execute, and analyse their marketing strategy effectively. With offices in New York, Paris, Singapore, Grenoble, Rabat, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Madrid, and Amsterdam, Digimind is part of Onclusive, a global partner for public relations and Communications success.

Additionally, as part of its CSR strategy, Digimind gives privileged access to its social media monitoring tools to schools and nonprofit organisations. This program, digimind.org, is implemented in order to extend this initiative to a larger number of NGOs and to open it to secondary education.