North American Corporate Privacy Comparison

Scooter[AMMO] writes "The Toronto Star has published an article on a study comparing the way companies protect the privacy of their customers, which is surely a topic of interest to most /.'ers. Choice quote: 'The study, the first to compare the corporate privacy practices of comparable Canadian and U.S. firms, found that Canadian businesses see their privacy practices as an opportunity to improve relations with customers, while their U.S. counterparts viewed privacy measures more as a way of complying with legislation and avoiding civil lawsuits.'"

Comments

Hmmm

[Plaeroma]

In the United States, "It's all about complying with the law, which may or may not have any bearing to people," said Ponemon. "In Canada, I got the sense that they thought it was just the right thing to do."

Isn't that exactly why we have laws in the first place, to set up penalties for not doing the 'right thing?'

Re:Hmmm

[Tackhead]

> > In the United States, "It's all about complying with the law, which may or may not have any bearing to people," said Ponemon. "In Canada, I got the sense that they thought it was just the right thing to do."
>
> Isn't that exactly why we have laws in the first place, to set up penalties for not doing the 'right thing?'

When there's no law, there are market incentives to Do The Right Thing. (If you fail to Do The Right Thing, your customers get pissed off and leave.)

The instant anything is codified into law - whether it's the Right Thing To Do or not - the penalty for failing to comply with the law means you get sued, go to jail, or both.

Oddly enough, as soon as this happens, complying with the law suddenly becomes more important than even thinking about what the Right Thing might be, and Doing The Right Thing falls completely off the radar. Funny, that.

Privacy: It's dead. You have none. Get over it.

Re:Hmmm

[amnesty]

Isn't that exactly why we have laws in the first place, to set up penalties for not doing the 'right thing?'

Not really. Laws are in place to have penalties for doing the wrong thing. That's not the same as 'not doing the right thing'.

Laws don't make you do the 'right thing'. You could simply just do nothing.

Re:Hmmm

[Cecil]

When there's no law, there are market incentives to Do The Right Thing. (If you fail to Do The Right Thing, your customers get pissed off and leave.)

This free-marketeer argument gets trotted out anytime there is a endemic failure within a capitalist market, but it's never quite that simple is it?

Even if it were that simple, the tone of your message says "Oh, whatever, just don't worry about it, stop whining", which is entirely counterproductive.

For the free market to operate properly, people need to care about companies doing bad things. They need to be passionate about it. Every person with a defeatist attitude like that is one more person the companies who do bad things don't have to worry about anymore, who they can abuse at will. When that group of apathetic people reaches critical mass (I'd argue it already did many, many years ago) look out.

Still, all of this assumes that free-market capitalism works as well in practice as it does in theory. That is also up for debate.

Laws are intended to keep the system in check. Neither are perfect, but we make do with what we have.

Privacy and outsourcing

[GeckoFood]

The privacy issue of customers and employees alike takes an interesting spin when you factor in outsourcing. Suddenly, all of your personal data is in someone's database overseas. That's ok, until there's a political problem. When you have a government who doesn't give a rat's butt about privacy laws in other countries, and someone decides to sell your data, you're screwed.

People just don't care.

[DrEldarion]

Indeed, 61 per cent of surveyed Canadian companies linked "good privacy practices" to customer trust and brand loyalty, compared to only 17 per cent of U.S. companies.

Maybe it's different in Canada, but there's a reason only 17% of US companies think that - because people around here just don't care! Sure, we complain about spam and junk mail, but how many people do you know (that don't read Slashdot!) actually care about their privacy at all? I'd say less than 10%. Look at how people react to invasions of privacy by the government ("It's for our protection!") and by companies ("Hey, if I use this card who cares if they track my purchases, I saved $2!"). They just don't give a damn!

Is it possible that Canadian citizens care more about privacy, making it make more sense for Canadian corporations to value privacy more?

Security Issue Too...

[MisanthropicProgram]

When your medical/financial records are sent to god knows where for whatever reason, your: Name, DOB, SSN, and address are sent along with it. Everything a crook/terrorist needs to steal your identity and cause havoc.
There was this study that most identity thefts are an inside job. Mostly from financial and medical firms. Identity Theft

Re:Can't deny it..

[Aneurysm9]

I'm not sure that European companies are any more driven by customer concern than American companies, but the laws with which they must comply have been writing with the consumer in mind much more than the hodgepodge of American privacy laws. The European concept is more akin to a property right that can be non-transferrably licensed whereas the US view is that the corporation has a property right in whatever information they obtain and can do with it what they will.

Re:Because

[BigBir3d]

I think it is geo-specific. Fuck the customer in every way possible, and make sure they don't find out. That is the US corporate mantra nowadays.

If you need examples, go car or house shopping.

And the best part is the employees are finally seeing that it is not just the customer getting fucked, but everyone below the CEO in the company as well. Unfortunately, most are adapting the "that is just the way it is, so I have to cover my own ass" attitude, which of course takes away from their ability to do a good job.

Re:Because

[JWW]

I've just been thinking about this lately with respect to world events.

Everyone is claiming that the President should have know about the prisoner abuse in Iraq. Well, thats all fine and good, but what does that mean when its applied to you and your job? Does the president/CEO of your company need to know everything thats going on at your company? If you answered yes to that question, then the inverse of that is; do you have any decisionmaking ability whatsoever in your job?

I find it disturbing how many people in the media and people in general expect full and absolute accountability from top levels of companies and the government, yet fail to realize that this means there will end up being no responsibility or care for the customer at the bottom if those people have no power or influence. Of course in the corporate (and I'm sure government too) world, there is also a lot of higher ups blaming their powerless workers for problems created from the top as well.

The power and the responsibility need to be at the same level, or things get broken fast.