SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
Edufox has hosted an annual convention of users of its famous e-learning software platform, and over time, it has become a grand event. It fills one of the large downtown conference hotels and overflows into the others, with several thousand attendees enjoying three days of presentations, panel discussions and networking. The convention is the centerpiece of the company's product rollout schedule and a great training opportunity for current users. The sales force also encourages prospective clients to attend to get a better sense of the ways in which the system can be customized to meet diverse needs and understand that when they buy into this system, they are joining a community that feels like family.
This year's conference is only three weeks away, and you have just heard news of a new initiative supporting it:
a smartphone app for attendees. The app will support late registration, highlight the featured presentations and provide a mobile version of the conference program. It also links to a restaurant reservation system with the best cuisine in the areas featured. "It's going to be great," the developer, Deidre Hoffman, tells you, "if, that is, we actually get it working!" She laughs nervously but explains that because of the tight time frame she'd been given to build the app, she outsourced the job to a local firm. "It's just three young people," she says, "but they do great work." She describes some of the other apps they have built. When asked how they were selected for this job, Deidre shrugs. "They do good work, so I chose them." Deidre is a terrific employee with a strong track record. That's why she's been charged to deliver this rushed project. You're sure she has the best interests of the company at heart, and you don't doubt that she's under pressure to meet a deadline that cannot be pushed back. However, you have concerns about the app's handling of personal data and its security safeguards. Over lunch in the break room, you start to talk to her about it, but she quickly tries to reassure you, "I'm sure with your help we can fix any security issues if we have to, but I doubt there'll be any. These people build apps for a living, and they know what they're doing. You worry too much, but that's why you're so good at your job!" You see evidence that company employees routinely circumvent the privacy officer in developing new initiatives. How can you best draw attention to the scope of this problem?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:
As the Director of data protection for Consolidated Records Corporation, you are justifiably pleased with your accomplishments so far. Your hiring was precipitated by warnings from regulatory agencies following a series of relatively minor data breaches that could easily have been worse. However, you have not had a reportable incident for the three years that you have been with the company. In fact, you consider your program a model that others in the data storage industry may note in their own program development.
You started the program at Consolidated from a jumbled mix of policies and procedures and worked toward coherence across departments and throughout operations. You were aided along the way by the program's sponsor, the vice president of operations, as well as by a Privacy Team that started from a clear understanding of the need for change.
Initially, your work was greeted with little confidence or enthusiasm by the company's "old guard" among both the executive team and frontline personnel working with data and interfacing with clients. Through the use of metrics that showed the costs not only of the breaches that had occurred, but also projections of the costs that easily could occur given the current state of operations, you soon had the leaders and key decision-makers largely on your side. Many of the other employees were more resistant, but face-to-face meetings with each department and the development of a baseline privacy training program achieved sufficient "buy-in" to begin putting the proper procedures into place.
Now, privacy protection is an accepted component of all current operations involving personal or protected data and must be part of the end product of any process of technological development. While your approach is not systematic, it is fairly effective.
You are left contemplating:
What must be done to maintain the program and develop it beyond just a data breach prevention program? How can you build on your success?
What are the next action steps?
Which of the following would be most effectively used as a guide to a systems approach to implementing data protection?
If an organization maintains a separate ethics office, to whom would its officer typically report to in order to retain the greatest degree of independence?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:
As they company's new chief executive officer, Thomas Goddard wants to be known as a leader in data protection. Goddard recently served as the chief financial officer of Hoopy.com, a pioneer in online video viewing with millions of users around the world. Unfortunately, Hoopy is infamous within privacy protection circles for its ethically questionable practices, including unauthorized sales of personal data to marketers. Hoopy also was the target of credit card data theft that made headlines around the world, as at least two million credit card numbers were thought to have been pilfered despite the company's claims that "appropriate" data protection safeguards were in place. The scandal affected the company's business as competitors were quick to market an increased level of protection while offering similar entertainment and media content. Within three weeks after the scandal broke, Hoopy founder and CEO Maxwell Martin, Goddard's mentor, was forced to step down.
Goddard, however, seems to have landed on his feet, securing the CEO position at your company, Medialite, which is just emerging from its start-up phase. He sold the company's board and investors on his vision of Medialite building its brand partly on the basis of industry-leading data protection standards and procedures. He may have been a key part of a lapsed or even rogue organization in matters of privacy but now he claims to be reformed and a true believer in privacy protection. In his first week on the job, he calls you into his office and explains that your primary work responsibility is to bring his vision for privacy to life. But you also detect some reservations. "We want Medialite to have absolutely the highest standards," he says. "In fact, I want us to be able to say that we are the clear industry leader in privacy and data protection. However, I also need to be a responsible steward of the company's finances. So, while I want the best solutions across the board, they also need to be cost effective." You are told to report back in a week's time with your recommendations. Charged with this ambiguous mission, you depart the executive suite, already considering your next steps.
You are charged with making sure that privacy safeguards are in place for new products and initiatives. What is the best way to do this?
