Work Immersion: Confidentiality Quiz

Work Immersion: Confidentiality

• Confidentiality is the protection of personal information.
• Confidentiality in the workplace means avoiding discussion of internal goings-on with coworkers. It also means not sharing trade secrets or other company information with competitors or the press.
• Casual confidentiality involves sharing information with a friend with the expectation it will be kept secret, while legal confidentiality involves data that cannot be shared with anyone.
• Confidential information includes:
  • Name, date of birth, age, sex, and address
  • Current contact details of family and guardians
  • Bank details
  • Medical history and records
  • Personal care issues
  • Service records and file progress notes
  • Individual personal plans
  • Assessments or reports
  • Guardianship orders
  • Incoming or outgoing personal correspondence
  • Information relating to racial origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, health, or sexual lifestyle.
• Maintaining confidentiality requires:
  • Keeping separate folders for employee forms and medical information.
  • Storing confidential documents in locked cabinets or rooms.
  • Providing protection via firewalls, encryption, and passwords.
  • Clearing desks of confidential information at the end of the day.
  • Avoiding leaving confidential information visible on computer monitors.
  • Marking all confidential information as "confidential," both written and electronic.
  • Properly disposing of confidential information.
  • Avoiding discussion of confidential information in public.
  • Avoiding using email to transmit sensitive or controversial information.
  • Limiting the acquisition of client data (e.g., social security numbers, bank accounts, or driver's license numbers) unless needed for the business transaction.
  • Wiping or destroying data on old computers.
• Employee information is one category of confidential data, protected by state laws related to "personal identifying information". This includes social security numbers, home addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, and internet identification names. Further examples include parents' surnames prior to marriage, driver's license numbers, and medical/disability information.
• Management information, a second category, involves discussions about employee relations, such as disciplinary actions, impending layoffs, terminations, and investigations of employee misconduct.
• The third category is business information, which includes proprietary information or trade secrets. These are not generally known to the public and would not be readily available to competitors through legal or improper means. Examples include business plans, financial data, budgets, forecasts, computer programs, data compilations, client/customer lists, ingredient formulas, recipes, membership/employee lists, and supplier lists.

Importance of Confidentiality in the Workplace

• Confidentiality is important for professionalism, safety, and security.
• Maintaining professionalism involves keeping personal details personal and disclosing them only to a few people with discretion.
• Safety is important because sensitive data, such as annual income and marital status, can be misused to cause harm to the individual or the organization.
• Maintaining security means protecting access to sensitive or personal data to prevent misuse or breaches.

Test your knowledge on the principles of confidentiality in the workplace. This quiz covers what constitutes confidential information and the differences between casual and legal confidentiality. Understanding these concepts is crucial in protecting personal and sensitive data.