The slow, emerging process of construction managers, contractors and supervisors using technology as part of the project process, are seeing the importance of maintaining their data privacy. With more and more construction companies depending on data software to improve their day-to-day operations, a risk of personal data being sold to third parties is beginning to happen on a more consistent level.

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Although we typically associate personal data with the social applications, there seems to be no difference when it comes to construction tech. A recent article written by David Ward, the CEO of Safe Site Check In, explained a story of data selling within the industry. He explained how officials at a mid-sized construction company had discovered that one of their vendors was reselling their data not only to general buyers, but to other subcontractors with access to a complete view into how much the GC was bidding on a specific job.

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This type of buying and selling is extremely damaging to the GC. Not only is their privacy jeopardized, but their profit margins could be severely effected.

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Is this Legal?

The caveat here is that construction companies signed the agreement with all the tiny fine print attached at the end of the proposal. Typically, this fine print explains what the software company intends on doing with the customer's data. So, whatever these tech companies do with the information is perfectly legal as long as they stated it in the 9 point font at the end.

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What To Do

Do your research. If you're looking to improve your workflow on the jobsite and think a specific software could be the answer, just make sure you read the terms before signing the agreement. Some software companies are truly working to create the best type of software and a privacy exposure on their end might not be on purpose. There are always ways hackers can break into systems.

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