SECTION 11.   THOUGHTS ON PRIVACY

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Digital footprints, virtual communities, and the pressures of security, have made privacy, or any hope for preservation of identity, and lives individuated, and in quiet, vital. The right to a quiet life is so important to us, a life without intrusion, it is legislated throughout our operating democracy, is an inherent human right under European law, and is emerging as a protected right in countries on every continent across the globe. It is a broad topic of thought and discussion in business, and for quality of life, of great importance to each of us.

 

Business struggles with privacy. It has been said and repeated so often that although I am quoting I don't know who, or from where, that "you can have security without privacy, but you cannot have privacy without security". It should also be added that without effective privacy and data protection controls, conforming to the requirements of statutory privacy regulations and laws and directives, domestic and overseas, is not possible. So, without security you can't have privacy, and without privacy you can't have compliance with most of the bodies of law that safeguard the sanctity and respect of individuals, of workers, clients, or prospective consumers, and the right to a life in quiet without unwelcome intrusion.

 

Unfortunately, you can't have security without getting a lot else right in organization, operations, education, and infrastructure, also knowing what you have, why, where it is, if you need it or have the right to have it, and how you need to protect and manage it, and that is where most fail, and downstream, privacy, and by extension, compliance suffers.