Dozens of laws, regulations, and self-regulatory programs govern privacy around the world. Further complicating a company's efforts to protect confidential client information are the nuances of privacy. Even when a practice that involves the sharing of some personal customer information is . . .
Dozens of laws, regulations, and self-regulatory programs govern privacy around the world. Further complicating a company's efforts to protect confidential client information are the nuances of privacy. Even when a practice that involves the sharing of some personal customer information is legal, a company may be penalized if that practice offends the sensibilities of mainstream citizens. The obvious example is that of the Internet advertising giant DoubleClick, which suffered a 40-point collapse in its stock price following its announcement that it intended, despite earlier promises to the contrary, to merge behavioral nonpersonally identifiable information that it had collected through the use of special online software called cookies with personally identifiable information obtained through its purchase of a massive offline marketing database. Several ultimately unsuccessful but costly lawsuits were filed against the company, and investigations were initiated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and several state attorneys general. To stop this avalanche of repercussions, DoubleClick shelved its plan. Although the FTC later exonerated DoubleClick of any wrongdoing, the damage to the company's image had already been done and some litigation still continues.