In a January 5 article for Entrepreneur Magazine, Riva Richmond, a technology and small business expert who writes for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and other leading publications, issued a seven-step guide meant to help business owners determine how to best deal with developing data backup policies during the disaster recovery planning process.

In addition to talking about basic steps such as data privacy audits and data collection and retention, Richmond also detailed the reasons why it's important for companies to publicize the improvements they make to ensure the privacy of their users' personal information.

"A privacy policy is a legal document that customers rarely read," she wrote in her piece. "But, they do expect simple and clear descriptions of company data practices at key moments, such as when they're asked to provide data and when you add new features to a product or service or make policy changes."

Richmond also indicated that this is particularly valuable to small online businesses, many of which are only building up their perception in the public eye. Amazon.com was one company she cited in her report, as she lauded the internet-only retailer for the way it protects the customer data it uses to provide product recommendations.

As a result of its planning, customers are able to confidently share their information with the retailer, and in turn, the business is able to ensure a pleasant user experience. While companies may want to keep the steps they're taking to secure their own data more private, these organizations look for the same signs of trust when choosing a consulting firm that could help them with their data management.

For example, by choosing a consulting group with a proven history of providing savings on hot site contract negotiations, and years of experience in the industry, business owners are working toward ensuring a more pleasant disaster recovery, should it's best data protections fail.