Privacy as The Boogeyman

If you’re like me, you might be noticing the frequency with which the perception, concept or practice of privacy increasingly makes its way into our daily life and vocabulary, across different mediums, and in many diverse contexts.

A regular feature I enjoy in my weekend reading is The Haggler column in the Sunday New York Times Business section. Basically, this is a column where readers write in to The Haggler (a.k.a. David Segal) asking him to intercede on their behalf against a company with which they have had some untoward experience and have gotten no satisfaction. People write in to The Haggler for help as if he is Obi-Wan Kenobi (That is, “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope”).

What I have noticed, and Segal just recently pointed out, was that many companies that The Haggler contacts in an attempt to help resolve the situation for their customer have fallen back on the comfortable position and response of refusing to talk about the disgruntled customer’s case with The Haggler due to the ‘privacy rights of the customer’ – even after the customer has agreed to waive their privacy rights do that The Haggler could act on their behalf! Usually in writing!

Segal notes:

"The Haggler has encountered this sequence of events more than a few times, and it always mystifies. If the real obstacle to discussing a matter is something other than privacy rights, invoking those rights is a very silly idea. Because after those rights are waived, it looks as though the company used a high-minded principle as a cheap excuse."

Excuse indeed. While generally speaking, companies rightly need to and should protect their customers data and transactions with them, it seems as though some companies reflexively use the boogeyman of ‘privacy’ as a reason to not be as transparent or forthright as they should. The ‘diplomatic immunity’ card of privacy should not used as an impediment to satisfaction, especially when the customer has either authorized a third-party to help resolve their disagreement, or otherwise is attempting to bring to light some unethical or questionable behavior by a company.

Transparency in practice and behavior is the present and future for companies who use, collect and process customer data in every format and medium. Period. Using the privacy of the customer as a kind of talisman that can only be understood or appreciated by the company is an outdated and inefficient model way of doing business. Plus, it’s just outright lazy. Companies who are transparent and forthright about their customer’s experience and want to do the right thing by them are also the ones that rank highest in customer service satisfaction surveys. Hiding behind the boogeyman of privacy doesn’t really scare anyone these days. Although it just might scare aware some business.