Personal Data Protection as an Element of Competitive Advantage

The article presents results of research on the information flow between the client and the company, inside the company, and the problems encountered by both parties in the data exchange process. Also included are methods of securing information through unauthorized disclosure, disclosing ideas to other clients. The basis of the study was a survey directed to 75 customers ordering in the examined enterprise and a survey among 40 employees of that enterprise. The study was also based on an in-depth conversation with employees of the examined company employed at various levels. The survey shows that the clients and employees of the surveyed company are aware of the high value of information, and its security is considered one of the priorities. The survey clearly shows that customers praise data protection activities, they treat it as an element used to care for the interests of the customer, as a further environment of the product or service they purchase. However, there are often errors due to customer ignorance, communication problems, and lack of knowledge of employees. The study covered the importance of information in an enterprise as part of its competitive advantage, the reasons for investing in information protection, the occurrence of incidents, the degree of information security, and actions taken to protect information in an enterprise.