Privacy Issues


The first problem we have with privacy is the definition - we don't have a full understanding of what it means and what we're trying to achieve. On one hand, we say we don't want anyone to have too much access to our personal information. The problem is if you want a promotion in a corporation, you want every one of the higher managers to know about you and everything you have accomplished. In this case, you want fairly wide dissemination of data. What you have to understand about privacy is that you must ascertain whether you want certain people to see your data and what you want them to see. You have to establish the criteria. The real issue is often reaching a common understanding of what we are protecting and from whom.

Technologically, I found I can protect any of the information using pieces of it, but the challenge is to ask yourself, "What is the end goal?" There are times when we want a wide dissemination of data and other times when we don't. For instance, in marketing, if you disseminate information about your likes and dislikes, then companies can actually get rid of a lot of junk mail to you because they'll realize that you're not going to buy anything anyway. Do you see that as a positive or a negative? Do you want to sort through all the junk mail? The material is a lot more targeted to you. I think the challenge that society has to face is finding out what the mix is between those two, so that information can be used by both parties, but it doesn't get abused by either one.




The CTO Handbook. The Indispensable Technology Leadership Resource for Chief Technology Officers
The CTO Handbook/Job Manual: A Wealth of Reference Material and Thought Leadership on What Every Manager Needs to Know to Lead Their Technology Team
ISBN: 1587623676
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 213

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