Description
You have been working for about six months at a new but fast-growing company that provides DNA testing services. The name of the company is Who Am I? Through innovative services, shrewd marketing, and competitive pricing the company has accumulated nearly 25 million customers in the United States. You have already made some significant contributions to operations and have caught the eye of the CEO. One day she asks you to come to her office. When you get to there, she asks if you know anything about privacy laws. You say that you took an excellent cyber law class at ODU but before you can explain how privacy was just one of many topics covered in the class the CEO interjects, “That’s right, I remember seeing that you got an “A” in that class. I have a project for you.” Without giving you a chance to say anything, she proceeds to explain that the company has been approached by the FBI to voluntarily provide DNA information about customers to assist them with an investigation into a series of unsolved gruesome murders that took place 20 years ago. She wants to know more about the whole “privacy thing” to decide what to do. She tasks you with preparing a short memo that will assist her in deciding whether to make the info available to the FBI. She has already done some quick Google research and found three items you need to read to get started:You start by checking the Privacy Statement for Who Am I? Here is what you find:
Access To Your Information
Your Personal Information may be shared in the following ways:
With our service providers, as necessary for them to provide their services to us.
With qualified research collaborators, only if you provide your explicit consent.
Who Am I? will not sell, lease, or rent your individual-level information to a third party for research purposes without your explicit consent.
We will not share your data with any public databases.
We will not provide any person’s data (genetic or non-genetic) to an insurance company or employer.
Exercise/Assignment
Write a memorandum (use common memorandum format such as To (CEO), From (You), Subject Line, Date) that is broken up into four parts:
Part One: Summarize the privacy concerns raised if Who Am I? provides customer DNA information about their customers to the FBI.
Part Two: Do you believe a greater societal need (identifying criminals) outweighs or does not outweigh the privacy concerns? Explain your position.
Part Three: Does the company Privacy Statement cover this situation? If not, what steps could Who Am I? take before making the customer DNA information available to the FBI?
Part Four: What risks (both legal and non-legal) does the company face if they decide to provide the customer information to the FBI without making any changes to the Privacy Statement or informing customers?
Outside references (properly cited) that support your position are good additions.
Evaluation
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