Why Is There a Need to Measure Privacy?

May 29
07:43

2008

Sam Miller

Sam Miller

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

In a world where everyone is prone to intrusion, privacy is hard to obtain and even harder to protect. Thus for a business, to measure privacy is a top priority.

mediaimage
Many people debated as to whether privacy is a right or not.  And while many of them continue to make disputes over the subject,Why Is There a Need to Measure Privacy? Articles in most countries around the world and as their constitutions declare, privacy is a dispensation. Not all laws uphold and restrict it, which is probably why up until today protecting the privacy of an individual, the family and an organization is still in process. For the record, privacy is the ability of a person or group to separate and or keep details about him or them from being disclosed for certain motives, resulting to selective revelation of themselves. This has always been true for business organizations. They call it business confidentiality. Learn how to measure privacy and its importance for your company.Privacy implies various meanings. However, when the word is mentioned, there is one word commonly associated with it, and this is “information”. Countries, traditions and business organizations treat privacy and its implications in a different way. In fact, so many things constitute invasion of privacy. But how is privacy measured? In order to protect the company from such invasion, the organization must be able to identify the three types of privacy. These are the organizational privacy, information privacy and physical privacy. By considering these important aspects, the company is able to defend itself against information theft, physical assault, burglary threats and other risks.One of the most kept trade secrets of the company are concealed within the confines of the boardroom. Details that pertain to strategies, future expansion, marketing plans and financial standings are kept confidential. To prevent such details from leaking, executive privileges are often given. The company may come up with legal activities to guard trade secrets. In most cases, the corporate members are given limitation as to what delicate subjects they can talk about outside the boardroom. Some information can also be stamped classified. As an indicator in measuring organizational privacy, press releases must be kept tracked especially those that may publish confidential contents.The second type of privacy that can be measured is the informational privacy. This aspect involves three terms: technology, accessibility and relationship. In order to realistically measure the informational privacy, the relationship between the accessibility and technology used in gathering and presenting data must be identified. If a company holds a sizable amount of information, be it operational or financial, then there should be restrictive efforts to combat the abuse of data accessibility. Large companies who have overwhelming databases often employ a system where only limited people can access delicate data. An inventory of employees who have access to these records and the frequency of access can be used as indicator for tracking privacy performance.Finally, there is the physical privacy. Perhaps this is the most apparent type of privacy that the company should protect. Physical privacy is actually the ability of the organization to avoid invasion to its physical space and that includes its employees, equipment, facilities and vehicles. Make a list of available security systems employed such as CCTVs, burglar alarms and smoke detectors and identify the incidents in which these systems were useful.Privacy, again, is more than being a right or privilege. To measure privacy, therefore, is an activity that will help the company figure out if it has the capacity to protect itself from intrusions.

Article "tagged" as:

Categories: