Valuing Privacy

I remember clearly a few years back when the online company I use for tax preparation was found to be sharing personal tax data with other companies. They did not share login IDs, passwords, or payment information, but still it was a shock that they would share any information at all, and without notification or permission. I am sure they did not want this information to come out, but once out, the only thing they could do was to promise not to do it in the future.

Why share data in the first place? Well, in the digital age, data is a highly prized commodity, and its distribution pays well. If a third party finds out the names and addresses of your customers, what they bought and what they paid, and so on, this information provides marketing people, plus scammers and other crooks, with critical clues about how much money your customers may have, where they spend it, and most importantly, how best to relieve them of their hard earnings. Combining data from more than one source gives fuller information than otherwise (the military knows this).

As a business owner, if you protect and respect the privacy of customer personal data, you will build trust and loyalty in your customer base. If I deal with you, it offers great peace of mind to know my personal details are not going beyond you and will not be used by others to build a detailed profile of my life.

Please don’t give or sell customer data to third parties; or if you do so, spell it out clearly in your privacy statement. The flip side of this is that business computing must also diligently monitor and block others from stealing your customer details. This posting is not the place to address responses to cybercrime, except to say there are many well-known practices and protocols in IT data management which can substantially cut risks. Talk to Jesse for more details about how these issues play out in your business and how to plug privacy holes.

The Big G

Also, it’s appropriate to mention the big G: Google. It’s impossible to be unaware of, and not dependent on, Google in digital life today. Most notably, the near-universality of Gmail and the Chrome web browser come to mind. Google has great technical assets and deep pockets, and their tools are genuinely useful. But Google is not doing all this out of the goodness of its heart; rather, by entrusting your communications and web browsing to their platform, they can and do collect detailed information about what you send and where you browse.

As a business owner, be aware that if you conduct business via Gmail, Google can read your emails at will and can also use your messages to train their AI. Maybe you don’t mind this, but perhaps your customers might. The critical issue with Gmail and other platforms is that you don’t know what they will do with the data they aggregate about your business or your customers. Jesse can advise you on alternatives to Gmail for your business, and there are several good privacy-focused web browsers available today.

SMS Texting

Finally, finishing up with low-hanging fruit: if at all possible, don’t conduct business with SMS¹ text messaging. This is the original form of texting and is still popular, but offers NO privacy at all. There is no encryption of the messages sent, and anyone with a computer could simply read what is sent and received. RCS² messaging is becoming more generally available for texting, and it is a much preferred alternative to SMS.

That’s all, with best wishes for protecting your customers and your business.

Footnotes

1. SMS (Short Message Service) is the original cell-phone texting standard. Messages are not encrypted and can be read by carriers and others. ↩

2. RCS (Rich Communication Services) is a newer texting standard that can support encryption and other modern features; it is a more private option when available. ↩