Maintaining strict confidentiality is critical to secretarial transcription. Secretaries within a business organization have many administrative duties including typing out letters, maintaining important files and documents, managing a business event and so on. They may need to transcribe a large number of audio/visual files as part of their work. Though some recordings may be of general business meetings, the information contained could be extremely sensitive. Therefore, business organizations must take into consideration both accuracy and confidentiality when hiring transcriptionists for secretarial transcription.
Confidential Information and its Protection
Confidential information can fall into several categories depending upon the business. When it comes to the pharmaceutical sector, research information, interviews or working with research teams, clinical drug trials, personal details, professional solutions and individually acknowledged health related information are highly confidential. Public disclosure of such information without authorization is a serious offence. Time-sensitive information such as recordings related to a discussion or interview about a product, event or service that has yet to make its appearance in public is another type of confidential data. If the information contained within these recordings is of political significance, it could be really disastrous to your business if that information leaks accidentally or is exposed intentionally by mischief makers. Transcription of legal data such as insurance details, contract reviews etc. are highly confidential as well.
If you are transcribing confidential data within your organization, your security policies are enough to maintain the confidentiality. However, this may not be practical since there will be a huge amount of data that needs to be transcribed and in-house transcription can prove to be really costly and time-consuming. Due to this reason, many companies rely on outsourcing. You need to make sure that your data remains safe with your partnering outsourcing company before signing the contract. You should ensure the following things.
- The company follows the practice of insisting that their transcriptionists sign non-disclosure agreements.
- Strict security policies are formulated by the company to ensure complete confidentiality.
- Necessary actions are taken to prevent leak of information during electronic transmission.
There are professional transcription companies that provide secure file transfer and employ encryption for transferred files. Such companies take effective measures to ensure that your data remains safe in their computers by adding password-protection, employing limited accessibility and installing anti-virus and firewall protection. Try to find companies that do not hire subcontractors to perform your tasks. If you are sure that a company that utilizes subcontractors can give you good results, make sure that there exists a solid contract with the subcontractors.
