Report: Ethical and Legal Considerations for Consumer Information

This report delves into the critical ethical and legal considerations surrounding the handling of confidential consumer information. It begins with an introduction emphasizing the importance of data security and confidentiality, followed by a discussion of practical interface design considerations, such as privilege minimization, secure connection defaults, and user interface safeguards. The report then explores key ethical and legal aspects, including consumer information privacy, data security for companies, and the impact of data breach laws. Positive effects of such laws include empowering consumers and incentivizing improved security strategies, while negative effects include increased costs and potential damage to market value. The report concludes by summarizing the importance of consumer data as a major asset and the need for robust legal and ethical frameworks to ensure responsible data management. References to relevant literature are included to support the analysis.

Running head: ETHICAL AND LEGAL CONSIDERATION IN HANDLING CONFIDENTIAL CONSUMER INFORMATION
Ethical and Legal Consideration in handling Confidential Consumer Information
Name of the Student
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Author’s note

1ETHICAL AND LEGAL CONSIDERATION IN HANDLING CONFIDENTIAL CONSUMER INFORMATION
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................2
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

2ETHICAL AND LEGAL CONSIDERATION IN HANDLING CONFIDENTIAL CONSUMER INFORMATION
1. Introduction
The security of information is the most vital concern in the recent times. Every
organization needs a proper level of security feature that would be able to secure the important
data possessed by the company. There should also be a proper form of legal and ethical
consideration based on ensuring the safety and confidentiality of user information (Greenaway,
Chan & Crossler, 2015). The different legal and ethical responsibilities should be based on
securing the wide area networks (WAN) within the company.
2. Discussion
Based on understanding the legal and ethical considerations, the company should follow
these considerations based on designing their interface:
1. If any kind particular software launches any other programs, it should be launched with
the minimum number of privileges that might be required to be run.
2. The checkbox should have an automatic checked option based on supporting the
connection based on SSL (McMenemy, Poulter & Burton, 2014).
3. There should also be some default option present within the user interface of any
system that would prevent the user from selecting the wrong or dangerous action if present
within the system.
The different ethical and legal considerations, which should be considered for the
determination of the confidentiality regarding user information within any concerned company
are:

3ETHICAL AND LEGAL CONSIDERATION IN HANDLING CONFIDENTIAL CONSUMER INFORMATION
1. Privacy of Consumer Information – There should be different kind of regulations
that should hold the responsibility of securing the information of the consumer. Many form of
aggregate information should be created based on the combination of pieces of non-private data
(Hsu & Lin, 2016). The companies should also ensure that the data retrieved from consumers
should be kept in a cloud based platform. This platform should offer high level of encryption
standards that would be put in proper place based on meeting the privacy and confidentiality
standards.
2. Security of data of companies – Each company should own their personal security
and privacy policy that would help in securing each of the communication between the clients
and company. Basic guidelines that include the use of data within the company should be highly
followed (Tikkinen-Piri, Rohunen & Markkula, 2018). Use of high-end security technologies
would help in protecting the company against the breach of data. Electronic signatures should
also be put in proper place in order to ensure that the proper and authorized person would be
getting access to data.
There are several forms of jurisdiction laws that are meant to secure the companies
against the breach of data. The disclosure of consumer information would lead to severe impacts
towards the reputation of the company. Some kind of positive and negative effects, which could
be made with the implementation of such laws are defined as:
Positive Effects – The laws based on breaching have been majorly been developed for
demanding the consumers to get notified during any incident of loss. With the implementation of
such laws, it would majorly help the consumers to taking action against the company for their
stolen or lost information. This kind of knowledge regarding the laws would also help the
company in lowering the effect based on the lost information (Bech & Malkhozov, 2016). The

4ETHICAL AND LEGAL CONSIDERATION IN HANDLING CONFIDENTIAL CONSUMER INFORMATION
laws based on breaching would also help and ensure that the concerned company would improve
their information security strategies by incurring positive measures. As a result of this, the
company would enact towards the implementation of safety measures based on preventing the
possible measures based on prevention of theft or loss of private information.
Negative Effects – On the other hand, there are some negative effects with the
implementation of breaching laws. This kind of law mostly lead companies for incurring many
kind of redundant costs that would result in loss for the company (Weil, 2017). These costs
mostly develops from providing a notification to the consumers based on catering to the fines
that are mainly developed. The disclosure of many forms of critical information within the
company would lower the market value and reputation of the company. This would mainly
happen as customers would develop many forms of doubts within the level of transparency
offered by the company.
3. Conclusion
Based on the supported discussions in the report, it could be concluded that personal
information in relation to the consumer data forms a major asset for the company. The company
mostly needs such kind of information for making critical decisions for the betterment of the
company and also increase the betterment of services for the company. The report discusses
about the different forms of legal and ethical considerations that should be put in proper place
based on bringing improvement in the services offered by the company.

5ETHICAL AND LEGAL CONSIDERATION IN HANDLING CONFIDENTIAL CONSUMER INFORMATION
References
Bech, M. L., & Malkhozov, A. (2016). How have central banks implemented negative policy
rates?. BIS Quarterly Review March.
Greenaway, K. E., Chan, Y. E., & Crossler, R. E. (2015). Company information privacy
orientation: a conceptual framework. Information Systems Journal, 25(6), 579-606.
Hsu, C. L., & Lin, J. C. C. (2016). An empirical examination of consumer adoption of Internet of
Things services: Network externalities and concern for information privacy
perspectives. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 516-527.
McMenemy, D., Poulter, A., & Burton, P. (2014). A handbook of ethical practice: a practical
guide to dealing with ethical issues in information and library work. Elsevier.
Tikkinen-Piri, C., Rohunen, A., & Markkula, J. (2018). EU General Data Protection Regulation:
Changes and implications for personal data collecting companies. Computer Law &
Security Review, 34(1), 134-153.
Weil, P. (2017). Towards relative normativity in international law?. In Sources of International
Law (pp. 123-152). Routledge.