If your company has an online presence, you probably have a privacy crisis brewing. It is the hottest topic going at the moment.
Ever since news broke that struggling e-tailer Toysmart.com might sell its database of users' personal information in the course of bankruptcy proceedings, newspaper columnists, elected officials and
ordinary folks have been expressing outrage at the prospect that supposedly private information, shared with a specific Web site, might become fair game. A recent study found that over a third of Web
surfers are somewhat to very uncomfortable about providing personal information online. And anxiety rises if the information is sensitive (e.g., medical) or if it comes from children.
PR professionals need to be knowledgeable about the national dialogue on privacy, in part to help protect their companies' and clients' reputations. Also, the issue of legal liability, while not yet
clear, is being defined by self-policing groups and federal agencies, with Congress lurking in the wings, prepared to strike if the public is not satisfied.
In the case of Toysmart, for instance, the federal bankruptcy court would normally consider the company's database an asset to be liquidated. The Federal Trade Commission, on the other hand, would
consider the sale to fall under fraud and deceptive trade practices, because the company promised users it would never release the information to a third party.