International Law

Marketers, meet the privacy officer. Privacy officer, meet the marketers.

According to a study by the Ponemon Institute and reported in Forbes today, there is a large disconnect between marketing departments and those charged with overseeing privacy compliance. This underscores the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to privacy within large organizations.

What Privacy Policy? - Forbes.com

...In response to a survey answered by 500 privacy and 900 marketing executives in industries ranging from health care to financial services, more than a third of marketing execs said they don't place any limits on the data they share with third parties, such as e-mail marketing agencies or online advertisers. By contrast, 75% of privacy officers believe that their companies limit the sharing of customer data.

More specifically, 80% of marketers said their organizations share e-mail addresses with third parties, compared with 47% of security and privacy officers. Other examples: 65% of marketers said they would distribute a customer's cellphone number, while only 47% of privacy execs said their companies allowed the data to be shared. Forty-five percent of marketers believe their companies shared credit card data, compared with 32% of privacy officers, and 29% of marketers believe their firms distribute social security numbers, compared with 7% of privacy professionals...

Full post as published by The Canadian Privacy Law Blog on June 23, 2008 (boomark / email).