Facebook, Twitter and other web 2.0 applications are reorganizing the control over the personal data of their users. Subsequently, many companies are also analyzing how they take care of their customer data; but if they aren’t, they should!
Why? Due to the size of these social networking or micro-blogging sites, all what they do on privacy rules and user data affect what users and consumers expect from other companies!
Social networking sites, blogs and other social media give the chance to collect enormous amounts of information about what people do online and some personal data from them. This situation generated a big doubt among users and customers about the breach of their privacy.
Is privacy still alive? Users are expecting to control their data and who can see it. Just remember and LEARN from the significant lessons that Facebook has given as with the Beacon application. That targeted advertising tool was considered a privacy disaster and thousand of users were against it because it let post what they were buying on their status feeds. Learn that people don’t want to make public that data! Or, when Facebook updated their privacy policies announcing that they were the owners of all your personal information published on the site, even if you had deleted it. Then, they had to retract that modification of their terms of use –facing the pressure of the users!
Do we have privacy online? Policy rules are crucial, even if companies don’t run a social networking site. Therefore, we have to put a stop to security breaches and define strong data privacy rules. It’s essential to create strategies of data protection and also facilitates information about how you are working on it.
On the other hand, companies also want to control data about themselves which brings a challenge for privacy policies for businesses.
Companies cannot prohibit employees to use Facebook or Twitter, among others. But, web 2.0 applications represent a new issue for businesses because they are making confused employees’ personal information with business information. What can you say about the company you work for? What are the limits?
It is highly recommendable to implement encryption technology for e-mail and other critical corporate data. Although this encryption doesn’t ban social networking sites or doesn’t forbid employees to spread private information, it gives legal cover in case of a privacy breach.
Now, it’s time that corporations promote international data flows through coordination and cooperation. What do you think over this issue?
Sources:
How Facebook and Twitter are changing data privacy rules
Resolving conflicting international data privacy rules in cyberspace
