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The CPO Cometh

Posted by emmett on from the just-the-facts-ma'am dept.

Afterimage writes: "This article at Salon from the AP mentions several big name firms are adding chief privacy officers to their executive staffs. The general take is that these new folks are to retain customers by not infringing on personal information. I think the verdict is still out on exactly what this means, but hopefully, it's the avoidance of another DoubleClick or Toysmart.com debacle."

3 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. I know exactly what it means by whm · · Score: 4

    The CPO is somebody who knows exactly how far they can go without pissing off their customers.

    This isn't somebody to protect privacy, this is somebody to help them get away with as much as possible.

    Heath

  2. Privacy offline by 91degrees · · Score: 4

    Strangely enough, a lot of people who are concerned about their privacy on line seem to only care about it online. For years, Supermarkets have been correlating and cross referencing our buying habits, for more carefully targetted advertising, using loyalty cards.

    They manage to convince people that this is what they want. How long will it be before they can convince us that online web tracking is also what we want? People are remarkable forgiving when you give them 1% of what they spend back.

  3. I've said it before, and I've said it again... by mindstrm · · Score: 5

    We need some kind of blanket privacy law that guarantees the minimum expected privacy, namely:

    When information is given in the course of business, that information may only be used for the purposes it was given.
    NOt simply 'not sold' but 'not used' for any other purpose. So... if I give my name and address to the car dealership.. well.. I undertand that this is because I may owe them some money, and because they need to notify me of recall, etc. I could not deny that this is what I feel I have given them this information for.
    THey would be unable, however, to start sending me junkmail about anything else, or to give my information away, even to another, new department of the same company.
    The video store could take your name and address so they can track down their videos when you don't return them.. but they could *not* give the information to anyone. They could *NOT* even start sending you junkmail.

    Now.. all *any* company has to do is *ask* and they may use your information for other things. But we must make the law force them to ask. THis is called consumer protection.

    What about credit reporting? Sure.. that's fine. I mean, if I borrow money, and I give you my name, I expect that I'm giving it to you so you can identify me if I skip. You can just have it in the contract.

    This is not 'evil' or 'anti-capitalist' or 'commie'.. this is simply consumer protection. Just as we have laws regarding the rights consumers have on newly purchased 'things'. We have 'implied warranties' (it is expected that the 'thing' you bought does what it says it does when you get it home.)