Privacy – from beyond compliance to accountability - CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa -
CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa » Privacy – from beyond compliance to accountability
Privacy – from beyond compliance to accountability
In March I traveled through Europe with HP’s Chief Privacy Officer Scott Taylor to visit Data Protection Authorities officials from several EU member states and the EU Commission. In a recent interview with him about HP’s approach to privacy and his role he summarized our experiences and achievements during our trip. I would like to use this blog to share some thoughts and forward looking statements following this trip and gather inputs and comments on HP’s approach.

As I mentioned in my previous entry we developed our “privacy beyond compliance” concept several years ago. One of the main points addressed in our trip was the accountability step which has been recently added to our existing approach. From the “beyond compliance” we have moved to the “accountability” model.

Today, any global company is confronted with complex markets and supply chains, and global competition. As a result, companies manage and store increasingly complex sets of data about their customers, employees and partners. That’s why a corporation like HP has to be “accountable” for the way it handles data all along the lifecycle of personal data management.

In practice it means that our policy, guidelines and practices do not stop at our door, but rather include all vendors, agents, and employees working for the company from the operational level to the executive board, ensuring that they are fully informed and trained on the way to handle information responsibly.

It also means that we have to think about personal data collection and use, not only on the legal side. We should not stop at the “what’s legal” but extend to the “is it right?”, “is it as expected by the data owner” and apply ethics and value driven considerations to our decisions making.

We can say that we have now a dual evolution which carves out a different landscape of privacy and data protection:
1. Increasing complexity with globalization, new businesses, new technologies, new practices and services;
2. Changing consumers’ expectations in terms of quality, transparency, trust and reliable relationship.

Those two trends are directly impacting the evolution of the information society. If not managed well those trends may jeopardize it and expand even more the digital divide.

This is one of the major challenges corporations and privacy professionals are facing today. Our role is to ensure the adequate management of those conflicting trends in collaboration between main parties involved: Data protection authorities, Business professionals and Consumers.

The last group has been traditionally dealt with via consumer associations or non governmental organizations. I think it would be extremely valuable to hear directly from you (customers, privacy experts, employees…), How do you see privacy and data protection? What do you think of our approach? Is there an additional dimension missing? What are your expectations? What do you fear most in our information society?

Thanks a lot in advance for your input and comments which will help us to fine tune our policies and practices.

Daniel Pradelles, HP Privacy Officer, Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA)

Posted 07-05-2007 5:11 PM by BlogArchive
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