Privacy – a fundamental right! - CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa -
CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa » Privacy – a fundamental right!
Privacy – a fundamental right!
Since 2006, in cooperation with my team and a network of lawyers, I manage all privacy activities as the Privacy Officer for HP in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). We are responsible for internal aspects like policy and legal compliance, new practices and technologies, awareness raising and training and external aspects such as to ensure presence in main international events, keep abreast of regulation, consumer attitudes towards privacy, emerging technologies and close communication with data protection authorities from EMEA member states.

Privacy is considered as a fundamental human right in the EU (Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union - Article 7 and 8) and is regulated in most EEA countries. At HP, privacy constitutes one of the main pillars of Global Citizenship. Our policy is based on the highest levels of standards. We consider it as a basic requirement and good business practice which ensures a sustained and trusted relationship with our customers and has to be considered as a competitive advantage especially in the information society which is currently unfolding.

The role of our EMEA privacy team, in tight relationship with local legal and business management, is to ensure that we understand the local legal requirements, comply with regulatory requirements, implement sound practices and maintain appropriate awareness and a privacy conscious culture. Frankly, it is not always easy in a group of countries where the law, the culture, the expectations and even the perception of what privacy means is so diverse. Inside the EU we have a set of “Directives” which define some basic concepts to be applied as homogeneously as possible in all EU member states. The EU Member States implementation is more or less uniform and some details may vary, but at least we have a certain shared standard at a conceptual level. Without going into details let’s just say that the fundamentals such as notice, choice, access, consent, security, legal protection when transferring data abroad are the same.

These directives cover only the legal or liability side which ensures safeguards aiming to limit excesses or to ensure remedies in case of problems. However, when taking a closer look, the perspective of indivuals and businesses seems to be missing: how to ensure data protection effectiveness, business efficiency and position data protection as a business benefit and not a necessary burden? How to address individuals’ expectations, perceptions and concerns when we need more and more personal data to provide better and customized services and products?

A responsible corporation cannot simply take the position that “complying with the law is enough”, it has to go beyond. Customer as well as employee expectations have to be taken into account at the design phase of any product, software, and service or marketing/sales activity.

At HP, we addressed this gap by developing the concept of “privacy beyond compliance” a few years ago.

It is usually described by the acronym “RIM” which stands for Responsible Information Management (Wikipedia). This concept is founded on an intersection between, on the one hand, “values, ethics and legislation”, and on the other, “governance, technology & strategic visioning”. As described by the Ponemon Institute “it is a process for ensuring trust and confidence in how a company’s leaders conduct business”.

By making the “trusted relationship” a reality, it will then create an ideal “win-win” situation between personal data owner (individual, customer, and employee) and the corporation providing services and goods. It will foster and improve some concepts like CRM (Customer Relationship Management), aiming at a better, more informed, predictable, sustainable interaction with customers; Customer intimacy, ensuring an optimum match between needs, demands and customer offering.

Daniel Pradelles, HP Privacy Officer, Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
Posted 06-29-2007 5:28 AM by BlogArchive
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