privacy policy

Privacy Policy
$0.89

Financial Privacy: An International Comparison of Credit Reporting Systems (Contributions to Economics)
$119.00
Credit reporting agencies collect and compile highly sensitive information on the millions of consumers in credit markets throughout the world and also increasingly across a variety of industries, such as insurance, retail and telecommunications. In this revised edition, Nicola Jentzsch provides an in-depth analysis of the economics and regulation of financial privacy and a comparative overview of credit reporting systems in the US and the 27 member states of the European Union. She offers an authoritative evaluation of the design and functioning of dual systems consisting of public credit registers and private credit reporting agencies. Drawing on theories of information and privacy as well as competition in information markets, she discusses the history and institutions of credit reporting. Finally, on an empirical level, the book assesses the economic effects of credit reporting on credit markets.

Privacy Handbook: Guidelines, Exposures, Policy Implementation, and International Issues
$125.00
For a company or organization, the most valuable intangible asset they have is trust, and the resulting goodwill from this trust. It may take years for a company to build up this asset, but as companies such as ChoicePoint learned this past year, it can all be gone just like that. Their crime was that of giving away private information about people to a criminal engaged in identity theft, and they failed to notify anybody until they had to under a California Privacy law. But it can be a daunting challenge to get a firm grasp on how privacy should be implemented in the enterprise, as well as knowing what laws of what jurisdictions may be applicable. That is why "Privacy Handbook: Guidelines, Exposures, Policy Implementation, and International Issues" (Albert J. Marcella, Jr. and Carol Stucki, John Wiley and Sons, 2003, 384 Pages, ISBN 0470011513) needs to be on the bookshelves of any professional that takes
privacy seriously.

I will not kid you and say this is an easy read. There is an abundance of material to get through and grasp. In fact, I have read through it twice already and am sure i will be going back. Why, because of the complexity and nuances of dealing with the issue in a serious way. When the authors talk about trust, it hits many levels, impacting customers, employees, vendors, and third parties (such as the case with ChoicePoint).

The authors start out discussing why privacy is important and then step by step walk the reader through how our notion of privacy has eroded over the years. They explain how it has happened through not only the passage of laws, but loopholes in the laws that are passed. They talk about how the Internet Explosion has had such an impact in ways most people may not comprehend. The authors take great pains to distinguish between privacy types, such as public information vs. non-public information.

Then the fun starts, they provide an extensive, but not full, listing of privacy resources available to people, as well as a listing of various privacy statutes on the books or proposed in various countries around the world. This latter item is extremely important to businesses because they must be cognizant of the privacy laws where there customers, vendors, employees live. Note that this is constantly changing, so additional due diligence is required on the part of the reader.

The other great strength of this book is that they walk you through the establishment and inclusion of privacy policies and standards, aligned to your business needs and objectives, as part of an overall security strategy for an organization. They acknowledge and discuss the barriers to success, but provide an excellent roadmap to make people successful.

Even though the book was published in 2003, it does not mean it is obsolete. On the contrary, while the laws and sits referenced in the book may be changed, the underlying concepts and guidance have not. An added bonus is the companion website to the book, which contains an additional 35 appendices. This book will more than pay for itself if used for its intended purposes.

Who Should Own This Book?

This book needs to be on the shelf of every CIO, CFO, Privacy Officer and Compliance Officer. For auditors, it provides essential knowledge and tools to conduct effective gap analyses, risk assessments, and audits.

The Scorecard

A Hole in One at the 17th Hole at the TPC in Sawgrass

Privacy and Social Freedom (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Public Policy)
$32.99
This book attacks the assumption found in much moral philosophy that social control as such is an intellectually and morally destructive force. It replaces this view with a richer and deeper perspective on the nature of social character aimed at showing how social freedom cannot mean immunity from social pressure. The author demonstrates how our competence as rational and social agents depends on a constructive adaptation of social control mechanisms. Our facility at achieving our goals is enhanced, rather than undermined, by social control. The author then articulates sources, contracts, and degrees of legitimate social control in different social and historical settings. Drawing on a wide range of material in moral and political philosophy, law, cognitive and social psychology, anthropology, and literature, Professor Schoeman shows how the aim of moral philosophy ought to be to understand our social character, not to establish fortifications against it in the name of rationality and autonomy.