A few years ago, pre-pandemic, so let’s say 2019 or so, a co-worker of mine told me her and her boyfriend were looking at houses. They wanted to know if I could hook them up with our mortgage broker, which I did. Not long after that, I saw her at a work function and asked how things were going. They had, indeed, bought a house, but she said the experience had left a bitter taste in her mouth. I thought she was going to talk about bidding wars and all that, but she said, when the time came for all the mortgage paperwork, they had asked her to fill out a form-fillable pdf and email it over to them. She was mortified. She said “There’s no way I want all of that information living in a PDF on someone’s desktop!”
Quite frankly, I thought she was being a little dramatic. I had gone through the same process when we bought our house. And not just our house, this was kinda just the way things work when you need to share your personal, private info. I recognized it wasn’t ideal, but also it was just the way things were. The difference between me and my co-worker was that I still held that implicit trust that is part of so many of these industries; she didn’t.
The insurance industry, in particular, is one built on this implicit trust. We share all our private details: SSN, Address, all that stuff for sure, but also sometimes private medical details; things I wouldn’t share with my own mother. But I’m giving them to an insurance company. And I’m doing that because I trust them. I trust that, when things go bad, they’re going to be there to help. And that trust remains. But there’s another type of trust that a lot of us aren’t so confident in anymore, and that’s the trust that my co-worker was lacking in: the trust that these big companies are adequately protecting my Personal Identifiable Information.
Where everyday habits create hidden exposure
To be fair, this isn’t an issue that is relegated to the Insurance industry. Any organization that is sharing sensitive data needs to be aware of the liabilities of permanent data. Whether it’s a bank, a mortgage broker, whoever! We’re all subject to the same failure points. And those failure points are most noticeable in our communications. Be it Slack, Teams, emails, or maybe our corporate help desk (Zendesk or something similar), it is in these communication channels that your risk lies.
Think about the daily workflows that might happen on your team:
- a claims adjuster receives a client’s banking details and medical records directly in an email reply;
- a broker forwards a completed proof-of-loss form to an external vendor for assessment;
- a customer service rep pastes a client’s policy number and date of birth into a Slack thread to resolve an open claim;
- an underwriter shares risk assessment data with a colleague through Teams;
- an IT staff member sends login credentials to a field agent by text;
- an underwriter sends internal risk notes and actuarial models over Teams to a third-party reinsurer
- a finance officer shares payroll spreadsheets with HR over email.
This is just a handful of types of transactions that might occur at your org every day. Now, I know what you’re going to say: We have policies in place for this! Our staff are only supposed to use verified channels, etc. But the reality is, sometimes policies, if enacted, slow things down a bit. And we know humans like the path of least resistance… so they take the easy route. And that means you have a ton of data, about your clients, about internal processes, about private stuff, just living in your corporate ecosystem.
The reason that’s of concern is something my co-worker was alluding to when she expressed her dissatisfaction. If or when (when is maybe more likely given the way things are trending) your company is breached by cyber attackers, they can silently start siphoning off a ton of data. It doesn’t live in a vault or anything, it’s just sitting in Joanna from HR’s email. Or it’s in the Claim Adjusters Slack Channel. Ripe for the taking.
So, what do you do? Well, the simple answer is: you don’t keep the data you don’t need.
Making security feel effortless again
Immediately, your hackles are likely up: but we’ve got compliance regulations to consider! We can’t just not store data! True. But you can be selective in the data you store in these unsecure channels. And that’s where using a combination of consistent, integrated, identity verification along with ephemeral messaging comes in. It also is, as I said, integrated into these channels, so it doesn’t slow things down. Meaning there’s little reason for your staff to be non-compliant and take “the easy road”!
An example: HR is onboarding a new employee, Dave. Some information is missing from his paperwork, so HR messages him in Teams. Dave replies with his Social Security Number, and just like that, it’s now sitting in a chat log neither of them will remember to delete.
With Traceless, the same exchange happens securely. HR requests the data, Dave verifies their identity through Teams, and Traceless opens a temporary workspace (a Trace) where the information can safely exist. Once HR retrieves it, Traceless confirms the transfer and the data disappears automatically.
Even if Joanna from HR leaves for vacation and doesn’t have time to retrieve it, Dave can set an expiration date on the Trace, and if he doesn’t, it expires on its own after seven days. The record of the interaction stays for auditing, but the sensitive data itself is gone.
Now, HR has the info it needs, but there’s no residual data for any attackers to pick up.
In practice, that means staff can share passwords, policy details, or claim files as one-time links that disappear after use. Logs stay; the data does not.
Ephemeral, integrated, verified communication is what we at Traceless call this. A claims manager can confirm a policyholder’s identity from inside ServiceNow, then send a one-time link that expires after the file is retrieved. An adjuster can request a document through a short-lived, verified channel and watch it vanish from said channel once they’ve received it. A broker can share a note with an underwriter that can’t be forwarded or copied. Each interaction is logged where the work happens, creating accountability without leaving sensitive data behind.
And we talked about how policies are great, but sometimes staff are non-compliant. The easiest way to overcome this is to integrate the process right into their workflows! This works best when it fits naturally into familiar tools: ServiceNow, Slack, Teams, Zendesk, ConnectWise, HaloPSA. Traceless operates inside those environments so staff can verify identity or send secure information without changing how they work. If security feels faster and easier, people will use it. Safe habits replace risky ones by design.
In practice, that means staff can share passwords, policy details, or claim files as one-time links that disappear after use. Logs stay; the data does not. Security teams maintain oversight. Compliance teams get complete audit trails without the risk of endless retention. Policyholders see fewer strange requests and more consistent communication.
This shift is small but meaningful. It moves the conversation from control to confidence; from storing information to managing its life cycle. Insurers can still meet legal retention requirements, but they no longer need to leave years of sensitive data sitting in inboxes. When information is verified, used, and allowed to disappear, trust grows stronger instead of thinner.
Insurance has always lived with uncertainty. The way forward isn’t about adding another layer of rules. It’s about communication that proves who’s involved and erases itself once it’s done. When that becomes the norm, people stop wondering whether they can trust the process; instead, they just do.
Want to see how this works in real-time? Book a 10 Minute Demo call and see how you can protect your team with Traceless!