Archive for the ‘Confidentiality’ Category

I love technology. If it wasn’t for technology, like so many other businesses,  we wouldn’t be in business.  Like all good things, there always seems to be bad about it as well.

Imagine my surprise when I realized a girl who just graduated from high school and was now taking colleges classes did not know the simple arithmetic problem 4 X 7. I thought to myself how could this girl graduate from high school not knowing her basic multiplication tables. Some of it of course lies within the school that she attended but then I realized that is not the full reason. It also lies within technology that we use, calculators. I don’t know about other areas in the country but in ours, once kids get to high school they are allowed to use calculators for all of their math. That totally amazes me. Of course, the lower grades they have to do all the arithmetic in their heads but as soon as they start using a calculator, everything they learned seems to go out the window.

I see this in grammar and spelling as well. All too often, people will type up an article, a website page, a letter etc and put it out there for the world to see without proofreading it. They rely on their word processing program to handle all the grammar and spelling mistakes. For spelling, the word processing program seems to do quite well but for grammar, not so much. Artificial intelligence can only be used to a certain extent. The files still need proofread. Now with the usage of twitter where you can only have 140 characters or less to get your point across people are resorting to text messaging short hand and acronyms. Don’t get me wrong I am on twitter and I love it but is it making us dumber?

Impatience seems to be a growing trend as well. Before, we used to only worry about road rage now we have to worry about phone rage, internet rage, and computer rage.

I remember when I got my first computer back in 1997 and I first connected to dial-up internet. I was amazed at all the information available on the internet. I spent hours and hours just looking up anything I could think of just because of the vast information that was available to me. I didn’t think about it being slow. Nowadays, if you don’t have high speed internet, people avoid you like the plague. They are totally shocked when they are told that somebody doesn’t have high speed internet. If for some reason, the internet is down for any length of time, people start to panic and get upset. Before, DSL and cable internet were the fastest internet available and now they are coming out with even faster internet speeds which are leaving DSL and cable in the dust. How long could you survive without internet access and could you survive on dial-up?

Cell phones are the source of phone rage. Most people have cell phones. If we try to contact somebody via a landline, and we can’t get them on the line the next step we take is to contact them via cell phone and if they can’t be contacted through that medium, we may start to panic or keep trying their landline and cell phone numbers and getting irritated because they can’t be reached. Cell phones are great especially in case of emergency. In fact, we have heard several times how cell phones have actually saved lives but is the need to be in constant contact with everything and everybody pushing our society towards more impatience?

As I said, I am not anti-technology but seeing how the next generation is in regards to relying so heavily on technology that they can’t even do simple arithmetic makes me wonder, is technology making us stupid and impatient?

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There have been many articles about what a virtual assistant is but they all use terms such as administrative assistant, independent contractor, remote worker, etc. With all those “professional” terms it can get confusing as well as seem like a virtual assistant will cost an arm and a leg, and in this economy we all know that we need to steer away from costly purchases unless it is a necessity. Then I come along and tack on the word confidential and holy smokes it really sounds like it will cost a lot of money, but in reality it really doesn’t.A virtual assistant is a person who provides secretarial services, also known as an administrative assistant. The only difference between a “normal” secretary and a virtual assistant is that the virtual assistant does not have a physical presence at your office. They usually work from their own home office.

Virtual assistants may provide all the services that a secretary will perform and others may not. For example, you may have virtual assistants who will answer phones, contact clients, etc and others who may not offer these services for numerous reasons. It all depends on your needs and desires. Some virtual assistants will work on a project-by-project basis and some require retainers. Again, it depends on yours and the virtual assistant’s needs and abilities.

Confidential virtual assistants are basically the same as a virtual assistant except for one major difference-CVA’s take confidentiality one step further than a regular virtual assistant. Like a virtual assistant, CVAs guarantee they will not disclose any information regarding your business and the projects they are completing for you. In order to add confidential to the virtual assistant title, CVAs need more than just virus scan and firewalls, they need encryption software, password protected computers, password protected/encrypted backups of client data, means to destroy any print data (i.e. shredding, burning). CVAs also have a software program so that electronic files can be shredded (i.e. PGP shredder) A CVA doesn’t take security and confidentiality lightly.

One of the biggest misconceptions of a confidential virtual assistant vs a virtual assistant is the price. There is no difference in pricing between the two just a difference in what you get for your dollar.

So the next time you think about getting a virtual assistant look for more value for that dollar by hiring a confidential virtual assistant.

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Investigative professionals and associations have very strict codes of ethics.  In general they are the same with a few additions and/or a few deletions but what seems to always remain the same is confidentiality. All investigative professionals whether it be private investigators, judgment recovery, bail enforcement agents, collections agencies, or repossessors have the obligation to provide client/investigator privilege. So where does the breach of client/investigator privilege end and normal everyday business begin?

Some would say unless the person who knows anything about the case is licensed in that field, it would be considered a breach of privilege.  This is a legally untenable position, which, if applied to all situations, would have the majority of professionals in trouble. It would eliminate the possibility of all of the following situations:

• Unlicensed office secretaries, receptionists and assistants.
• Unlicensed internet service providers.
• Unlicensed photo developers.
• Unlicensed sub-contractors of any kind.
• Unlicensed computer repair techs. 

The standard consensus about breach of client privilege is, as long as somebody is doing work for the investigative professional, it is not a breach of confidentiality.  Sometimes business owners need to seek the help of outside professionals. It is both ethical, and good management to do so. The key is to select outsourcing professionals who are trustworthy, and who understand and respect the client confidentiality standard. 

Here are a few tips for increasing security when working with third party professionals:

• Do a thorough background check on those whose services you utilize
• Check references
• Interview the person
• Go with your gut feeling – often this is based on subtle, unexplainable reactions to body language, verbal inflection, or wording that you cannot pinpoint, but which all originate from legitimate informational sources.
• Start with small tasks which are not highly sensitive. Work up to more confidential tasks as trust develops, and not before.
• Create a good contract, which spells out your expected level of confidentiality, and their status as your representative for the tasks in question (so you have legal proof that they are acting on your behalf in the jobs in question). 

Ultimately, investigative professionals as well as other small business owners need to do their own due diligence before hiring anybody.  If the company being considered for hire won’t allow any type of “investigation”, run as fast as you can in the other direction.  If they won’t let potential clients do reasonable background checks (in relation to the confidentiality of the job in question) then they have something to hide.

Confidentiality is a serious issue. But the law provides for assistants and other helpers. Choose wisely, and your business can grow smoothly through any phase, even when the amount of work you need assistance with is small.

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Confidentiality is of huge importance to the small business owner in this ever changing technological society.  Every day, secrets are exposed, online and off, through carelessness or harmful intent. Confidentiality and trust have become major issues in outsourcing work of almost any kind.

I repeatedly hear the questions, “How do I know you won’t sell the information I give you to somebody else?”, and “How do I know you will be careful about protecting my information from exploitation?”  These are valid questions, which should be asked of ANY assistant, whether they are in your office, or outside your office.

Virtual assistants are small business owners who have worked hard to get their business off the ground.  They have spent hours and hours researching their industry, creating a website, creating logos, and marketing just like you have. It could take months maybe even years before their business is thriving, and they have invested heavily to get that result. It isn’t just a job to them. It is their passion, their life, and their livelihood. No thinking business owner will risk their hard work over an issue as important to the client as confidentiality. If an in-house assistant is careless about confidentiality, they may receive a reprimand or lose their job. If a VA is careless, they lose much more, because they are much more dependent upon their reputation to secure additional work – there are no laws which say you cannot tell someone EXACTLY why you fired them.

Information must be protected from accidental loss, as well as from carelessness and outside threats. A computer virus is costly to both the client, and the virtual assistant, but the virtual assistant has the most to lose. They lose time, may have to spend money for repairs, and they lose credibility, and if important data is lost, they must make restitution to the client. Anti-virus, anti-malware, and anti-spyware software are essential components on the computer of any virtual assistant. A firewall, encryption software (for encrypting emails on request), and security passwords are also basic elements that a virtual assistant installs and uses.

Print information is just as vulnerable as the technological information. The simple precaution of shredding and then burning all sensitive documents when the project is completed ensures that the information is destroyed in a way that cannot be reconstructed. Sensitive documents can be protected during the project, by storing them in a locked cabinet. The key is kept with the VA.

If you have confidentiality concerns about hiring a VA, here are some questions you can ask them:

• 1. How do you secure confidential information on your computer?
• 2. How do you secure confidential printed documents?
• 3. What do you do with confidential documents at the conclusion of an assignment?
• 4. What is your policy in regard to sharing information between clients?
• 5. What do you consider to be confidential information?

The answers to these five questions will give you valuable information in regard to selecting a diligent and careful assistant, so you can begin to build a long term relationship with a professional who will aid you in growing your business.

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