Monday, October 8, 2012

A lesson on keeping information secret


While preaching the Sunday sermon, our parish priest gave a vivid example of how a young mother taught her ten year old son, a lasting lesson on keeping secrets.

He said “Shirley was Beth’s neighbor and her best friend.  Animatedly, over a cup of tea, at Beth’s house she poured out the problems she was facing with her young daughter. As she left, she asked Beth to keep what she told her a secret, as it would affect her relationship with her daughter, if she or others came to know.

Later, Beth realized that here ten year old son had overheard the entire conversation. She called him and said “Ryan, if Shirley had to leave her purse in our house today, would we give it to anyone or only to her”. Ryan replied, “Only to her mama”. Then Shirley said, “Today, she left something even more valuable when she shared her problems with me. We do not have the right to share them with anyone”.

In this simple way she taught her child the meaning of confidentiality.

In a similar way, we as employees share an equal, or greater, responsibility to protect corporate and customer personal data. Organizations, like individuals, have their own set of confidential and personal customer data to safeguard against loss, or theft by competitors and criminals. Companies need to keep secrets to protect business interests and keep certain decisions confidential, safeguard new product development, ensure customer data privacy and keep design secrets under wraps as long as needed

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