“It’s only an email address!”

Facebook, Ubisoft, and Morningstar are all recent examples of data breaches that involved the unauthorized release of email addresses. In one of several conversations I have had about these events some people could not understand why others were upset about the release; after all, they are only e...

Privacy and the Cloud

Cloud computing provides an opportunity for businesses to lower costs and increase their computing infrastructure’s flexibility. When utilizing a cloud service provider for additional storage, computing power, or a full application you should look into the privacy implications as these are ...

Valuable functionality can cause a privacy breach

Last Friday it was revealed that reporters from Bloomberg News could retrieve information from the profiles of subscribers to Bloomberg’s data terminals as well as the subscribers’ system usage (NYT article here). While I agree with the characterization of this incident as a “mi...

Emerging technology, privacy, and your business

Google Glass has sparked a wide ranging discussion about the product’s potential  impact on privacy. The conversations I have seen have mostly focused on the impact to the existence of privacy in our technology-dependent world, but I have seen only limited discussion on the impact to a busi...

Privacy observations while waiting for a memory upgrade

Deciding I needed a memory upgrade for my laptop, I went to the nearest Best Buy on the advice of another retailer. Things got a little complicated allowing me to spend about two and a half hours in the store. This gave me a chance  me to see how this particular Geek Squad protected privacy. My [...

Who is your staff friending?

Defining a social media policy is a difficult undertaking. It requires a balance of protecting your company’s privacy and restricting your employees’ online activities. When an employee friends a customer or vendor, a seemingly innocent post may result unintended consequences.

Mobile devices and business privacy

Before smartphones there were cameras. Businesses precluded the use of cameras within their premises by policy to protect intellectual property and privacy. Now, mobile devices have changed the rules (or at least bent them). Smartphones and tablets have become standard tools for our every day bus...

SMB privacy: no free pass

Like larger enterprises, small and medium businesses (SMBs) collect personal information about their customers, employees, vendors and other stakeholders; it is just part of doing business. Establishing an SMB privacy program would be very beneficial for these businesses, but for the majority of ...

Keep your privacy policy simple

Earlier this week a photo was posted on Facebook that was intended to be shared just with friends. The photo was tagged with someone appearing in it allowing tagged person’s friends to see the photo. One friend of the tagged person re-posted the photo and before you know it the photo went v...