A Cybermodel for Privacy by Design: Building privacy protection into consumer electronics

Abstract

Does privacy protection matter in consumer electronics (CE)? What is privacy, how is it valued, and where does it sit in your organization today? Chances are, if you do not have a chief privacy officer or data-protection officer, your company is lacking in protecting critical data, let alone observing all the laws and statutory regulations dealing with privacy (e.g., audits, compliance, etc.). Managing privacy is crucial, especially considering the key mandated privacy requirements, such as those concerning personally identifiable information (PII), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the payment card industry (PCI). In addition, the privacy definitions and the policy and enforcement effectiveness are themselves varied and complex, and they change depending on where your data reside?i.e., the state, province, and country. For example, the European Union?s (EU?s) data-protection directive [1] is much stricter than the weak U.S. privacy laws. (Note that if you plan to market a global CE product, you should know about the Safe Harbor Framework.)