Marketing Management: Impact of Data Breach Disclosure on Key Areas

This essay examines the implications of disclosing a data breach on key areas of marketing management. It begins by outlining the legal rules surrounding data breach disclosures in Australia, particularly the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme. Using the Uber data breach of 2016 as a case study, the essay discusses the potential damage to brand reputation, loss of intellectual property, and revenue loss that can result from such incidents. It emphasizes the importance of timely disclosure to allow affected individuals to take necessary steps to mitigate harm. The essay concludes by highlighting the significant consequences for a company's marketing efforts when a data breach is revealed, underscoring the need for robust data security measures.

Running Head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT 0
Marketing Management
Principles of marketing management
(Student Details:)
10/17/2018

Marketing Management 1
Principles of Marketing Management
Introduction
This discussion is about essential disclosure of the data breach to the customers whose
personal data is exposed during the breach. A data breach happens when any personal info
held by an organisation is leaked, lost or stolen by unauthorised disclosure. If a data breach
includes personal info, it must be revealed on time. The breach can result in serious damage
to any of the affected individual (Bogle, 2018).
Data breach information legal rules in Australia
Presently, businesses and firms that are operating in Australia are subject to the nation's
new notifiable data breaches (referred as NDB) scheme. According to the scheme, companies
will have to report the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (referred as OAIC)
and all individuals who will be affected in case personal info is leaked, lost, or stolen.
The NDB scheme is applicable to all organizations as well as agencies along with prevailing
personal info security obligations under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) from
22 February 2018. Moreover, Agencies and organisations have to be equipped to execute a
fast assessment of a doubted data breach to control the extent of serious harm to their
customers (Australian Government, 2018).
Uber data breach
During the late 2016, two persons outside the Uber Company had wrongly retrieved user data
warehoused on a third-party cloud-based service that the company use (Khosrowshahi, 2017).
The persons downloaded data files holding information, containing:
 Drivers’ data: The names as well as driver’s license numbers of above 6, 00,000
drivers of the United States.
 Riders’ Data: Personal info of 57 million Uber-users worldwide, inclusive the drivers
mentioned above. The personal information contained names, email IDs and mobile
numbers.

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Later than the incident, company took instantaneous steps to secure the safe data and close
further illegal access by those persons. Company consequently recognized the persons and
acquired assurances that entire downloaded information had been smashed. After this big
incident, Uber implemented highly secure measures to confine access to as well as reinforce
security controls over their cloud-based storage data. Thus, disclosure or notification among
the consumers or the employees whose data is breached provides those individuals an
opportunity to take required desired steps to lessen the harm that can consequence through a
data breach (Wong , 2017).
Implication of disclosing a data breach for marketing areas
There are some most significant implications on key areas of marketing of the company that
disclose a data breach:
Damage to brand reputation
As the customers value their data security as well as privacy, and data breaches often contain
consumer payment information. Thus, after disclosing any data breach by the company new
customer leads will be doubtful while trusting that company having a history of inferior data
security (The AME group, 2018).
Loss of Intellectual Property
Losing intellectual property (IP) can affect the effectiveness and competitiveness of the
company. Additionally, strong rivals would not leave the chance to take profit of stolen info
about the company (The AME group, 2018).
Revenue loss
Noteworthy revenue loss as a post result of a data security breach is very inevitable (The
AME group, 2018).

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References
Australian Government, 2018. Notifiable Data Breaches scheme. [Online] Available at:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy-law/privacy-act/notifiable-data-breaches-scheme [Accessed
16 October 2018].
Bogle, , 2018. Data breaches: If a company has lost your personal info, they now have to tell
you. [Online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-22/-companies-
must-inform-consumers-of-data-breaches/9462170 [Accessed 16 October 2018].
Khosrowshahi, , 2017. 2016 Data Security Incident. [Online] Available at:
https://www.uber.com/newsroom/2016-data-incident/ [Accessed 16 October 2018].
The AME group, 2018. Data Security Breach: 5 Consequences for Your Business. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theamegroup.com/security-breach/ [Accessed 16 October 2018].
Wong , J.C., 2017. Uber concealed massive hack that exposed data of 57m users and drivers.
[Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/21/uber-data-hack-
cyber-attack [Accessed 16 October 2018].