How to Protect and Safeguard Your Digital Assets
If your business – like most – has an online presence, then it’s likely you’ll have a fair share of digital assets at your disposal. Your website, blogs, and other media are all significant investments that are crucial for your growth, which make them a lucrative target for potential thieves.
As a digital agency, we at Squarebird have a strong understanding of the need to protect your digital assets, intellectual property, and copyright – along with the methods of doing so. In this article, we’ll explain what your digital assets are, why they need protecting, and what you can do to safeguard them against misuse.
What are your digital assets?
Digital assets are anything you own that exist in the digital sphere. This can include your photography, website copy, brand colours, logo, slogan, and even the code behind your website. Anything and everything that your business does online uses or makes up your digital assets.
Not all digital assets you use will be directly owned by you. For example, having a license to use a stock image doesn’t mean you own the original photo. But for bespoke items, you’ll likely have exclusive rights to them – and it’s your responsibility to make sure they’re protected.
Why do digital assets need protection?
In the online world, it’s easy for people to steal your digital assets – a simple copy and paste, and they’ll be able to post it wherever they like. Your rights may not be comprehensive, as some fair use is often allowed, but if your assets are being misused then you’ll want to take action.
For example, if a competitor is stealing bits of your site, like your blogs, designs, or its unique features, this can cause customers to turn to them which poses problems for your brand identity.
Likewise, bad actors seeking to pretend they’re you in order to garner clicks – and personal identifiable information of your prospective customers – may also duplicate your assets in order to appear more legit.
Another reason for digital asset protection is more economical. You’ve invested money, time, and effort into obtaining these assets. If someone else is using your hard work for free, this can devalue your investment and leave you on the back foot.
All in all, protecting your assets is vital to safeguard both your business and its customers. The government website tells you what you can do to protect your intellectual property, but not much in the way of preventing misuse in the first place. So, how do you stop people from using your assets?
Way to protect your digital assets
- Being vigilant can dissuade potential asset misuse. If you don’t let it slip when others use your digital assets, even if only in minor ways, this will cause other opportunists to think twice before they swipe your stuff.
- Watermarking your digital assets provides a sure sign of your property on another site, and can make it easier to find instances of infringement.
- Preventing or tracking text copying can stop your text winding up on other sites, or at least give you an idea if other people are using it. You need to be careful here to ensure the text can still be crawled by web browsers for its SEO value.
- Web security can stop people from making carbon copies of your site. A protected back end with 2-factor authentication and verified plugins, along with a reliable hosting provider, can ensure the technical aspects of your website remain secure.
- Regularly checking for copies is another good way to protect your assets, as this will help you quickly identify whether they’re being misused.
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How to find copies of your intellectual property
The internet is a sea of information, sites, and people looking for a shortcut to success. Trying to find out whether your intellectual property (IP) is being used as such a shortcut can feel impossible with the distance you have to cover. Here’s some tips to get there quick:
Reverse image search
Google and other browsers allow you to search using an image instead of a search term. This will give you a set of similar images found on websites, with the most similar being at the top, making it easy to see if your IP is being used. As this also gives you the website it’s on, it makes it easier to handle the next steps.
Advanced search
Google’s advanced search tool lets you find search terms, phrases, and copy – protected or otherwise – on any page on the web. If you’ve got a particular trademark like a slogan or product and want to make sure it’s being used appropriately, using this tool can help narrow down places where it might appear without your consent.
Customer communications
If you’ve got a strong brand with a loyal following, it’s possible that your customers will reach out to you if they see your IP being misused online. Likewise, complaints being directed towards you from instances of your IP on other sites that are being misattributed to you can also be a telling sign.
Keeping watch of your social media channels and customer reviews can provide a useful stream of sites and information regarding your IP usage, helping you stay on top.
Monitoring competitors
Finding out whether your IP is being infringed on can still be a challenge, even with the methods above. Unless you stumble across it yourself, your IP could be used for years before you find it.
Monitoring your competitors provides a potential solution. As they’re in the same industry as you, they’re the most likely to benefit from using your IP. Friendly competition is all well and good, but this method allows you to protect your rights if they’re being infringed upon.
Protect your brand and business with Squarebird
Protecting your brand can be as simple as creating a distinct, ownable image, ensuring your website is secured against bad actors, and that it’s hosted by a reliable provider – all of which you’ll find at Squarebird. Our Bristol-based digital agency provides all the expertise you need to create and keep a brand you’ll be proud of. To find out more, get in touch.