Privacy is good for business

We talk about privacy as a right, but if privacy was good for business? it could?

There are a lot of people working on privacy and economics, and research of economics of privacy such as Alessandro Acquisti, and privacy consult firms such as Open Business Innovation founded by Stephan J. Engberg.

About this subject I have found this interview with IBM's chief privacy officer, Harriet Pearson.


Privacy is good for business


I'm an example of what has become basically a new profession".

As IBM's chief privacy officer, Harriet Pearson oversees our policies for gathering, sharing and using personal information from customers and employees. It's a pioneering position, but it's hardly a lonely one. In her words:

"There are thousands of privacy professionals now, in the U.S. and Europe and Asia. Most of the Fortune 100 have a privacy officer or some sort of equivalent".

This high-level concern for privacy is a direct result of the Internet's explosive growth. Once used only for "surfing", the Web has become a destination for shopping, banking—even looking after our health and relationships. As the details of our lives accumulate in other people's databases, privacy has become a source of consumer anxiety—and corporate concern.

If individuals fear an Orwellian loss of privacy, businesses and governments fear the opposite scenario: that consumer's worries may lead them to opt out of online data gathering, or to simply avoid participating in an increasingly networked economy. But beyond that anxiety is the growing idea that safeguarding personal data is a corporate responsibility—not just to the customer, but to the business itself. If the information is valuable enough to be collected and warehoused, then it is valuable enough to be carefully managed and protected, just as much as any other corporate asset.

As Pearson puts it, "Privacy is good for business".

Full interview at IBM