SCENARIO

Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:

Your organization, the Chicago (U.S.)-based Society for Urban Greenspace, has used the same vendor to operate all aspects of an online store for several years. As a small nonprofit, the Society cannot afford the higher-priced options, but you have been relatively satisfied with this budget vendor, Shopping Cart Saver (SCS). Yes, there have been some issues. Twice, people who purchased items from the store have had their credit card information used fraudulently subsequent to transactions on your site, but in neither case did the investigation reveal with certainty that the Society’s store had been hacked. The thefts could have been employee-related.

Just as disconcerting was an incident where the organization discovered that SCS had sold information it had collected from customers to third parties. However, as Jason Roland, your SCS account representative, points out, it took only a phone call from you to clarify expectations and the “misunderstanding” has not occurred again.

As an information-technology program manager with the Society, the role of the privacy professional is only one of many you play. In all matters, however, you must consider the financial bottom line. While these problems with privacy protection have been significant, the additional revenues of sales of items such as shirts and coffee cups from the store have been significant. The Society’s operating budget is slim, and all sources of revenue are essential.

Now a new challenge has arisen. Jason called to say that starting in two weeks, the customer data from the store would now be stored on a data cloud. “The good news,” he says, “is that we have found a low-cost provider in Finland, where the data would also be held. So, while there may be a small charge to pass through to you, it won’t be exorbitant, especially considering the advantages of a cloud.”

Lately, you have been hearing about cloud computing and you know it’s fast becoming the new paradigm for various applications. However, you have heard mixed reviews about the potential impacts on privacy protection. You begin to research and discover that a number of the leading cloud service providers have signed a letter of intent to work together on shared conventions and technologies for privacy protection. You make a note to find out if Jason’s Finnish provider is signing on.

What process can best answer your Questions about the vendor’s data security safeguards?

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An organization’s privacy officer was just notified by the benefits manager that she accidentally sent out the retirement enrollment report of all employees to a wrong vendor.

Which of the following actions should the privacy officer take first?

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An organization’s internal audit team should do all of the following EXCEPT?

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SCENARIO

Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:

John is the new privacy officer at the prestigious international law firm C A&M LLP. A&M LLP is very proud of its reputation in the practice areas of Trusts & Estates and Merger & Acquisition in both U.S. and Europe.

During lunch with a colleague from the Information Technology department, John heard that the Head of IT, Derrick, is about to outsource the firm’s email continuity service to their existing email security vendor C MessageSafe. Being successful as an email hygiene vendor, MessageSafe is expanding its business by leasing cloud infrastructure from Cloud Inc. to host email continuity service for A&M LLP.

John is very concerned about this initiative. He recalled that MessageSafe was in the news six months ago due to a security breach. Immediately, John did a quick research of MessageSafe’s previous breach and learned that the breach was caused by an unintentional mistake by an IT administrator. He scheduled a meeting with Derrick to address his concerns.

At the meeting, Derrick emphasized that email is the primary method for the firm’s lawyers to communicate with clients, thus it is critical to have the email continuity service to avoid any possible email downtime. Derrick has been using the anti-spam service provided by MessageSafe for five years and is very happy with the quality of service provided by MessageSafe. In addition to the significant discount offered by MessageSafe, Derrick emphasized that he can also speed up the onboarding process since the firm already has a service contract in place with MessageSafe. The existing on-premises email continuity solution is about to reach its end of life very soon and he doesn’t have the time or resource to look for another solution. Furthermore, the off- premises email continuity service will only be turned on when the email service at A&M LLP’s primary and secondary data centers are both down, and the email messages stored at MessageSafe site for continuity service will be automatically deleted after 30 days.

Which of the following is a TRUE statement about the relationship among the organizations?

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SCENARIO

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Edufox has hosted an annual convention of users of its famous e-learning software platform, and over time, it has become a grand event. It fills one of the large downtown conference hotels and overflows into the others, with several thousand attendees enjoying three days of presentations, panel discussions and networking. The convention is the centerpiece of the company’s product rollout schedule and a great training opportunity for current users. The sales force also encourages prospective clients to attend to get a better sense of the ways in which the system can be customized to meet diverse needs and understand that when they buy into this system, they are joining a community that feels like family.

This year’s conference is only three weeks away, and you have just heard news of a new initiative supporting it: a smartphone app for attendees. The app will support late registration, highlight the featured presentations and provide a mobile version of the conference program. It also links to a restaurant reservation system with the best cuisine in the areas featured. "It’s going to be great," the developer, Deidre Hoffman, tells you, "if, that is, we actually get it working!" She laughs nervously but explains that because of the tight time frame she’d been given to build the app, she outsourced the job to a local firm. "It’s just three young people," she says, "but they do great work." She describes some of the other apps they have built. When asked how they were selected for this job, Deidre shrugs. "They do good work, so I chose them."

Deidre is a terrific employee with a strong track record. That’s why she’s been charged to deliver this rushed project. You’re sure she has the best interests of the company at heart, and you don’t doubt that she’s under pressure to meet a deadline that cannot be pushed back. However, you have concerns about the app’s handling of personal data and its security safeguards. Over lunch in the break room, you start to talk to her about it, but she quickly tries to reassure you, "I’m sure with your help we can fix any security issues if we have to, but I doubt there’ll be any. These people build apps for a living, and they know what they’re doing. You worry too much, but that’s why you’re so good at your job!"

Which is the best first step in understanding the data security practices of a potential vendor?

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Which term describes a piece of personal data that alone may not identify an individual?

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As a Data Protection Officer, one of your roles entails monitoring changes in laws and regulations and updating policies accordingly.

How would you most effectively execute this responsibility?

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SCENARIO

Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:

Amira is thrilled about the sudden expansion of NatGen. As the joint Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with her long-time business partner Sadie, Amira has watched the company grow into a major competitor in the green energy market. The current line of products includes wind turbines, solar energy panels, and equipment for geothermal systems. A talented team of developers means that NatGen’s line of products will only continue to grow.

With the expansion, Amira and Sadie have received advice from new senior staff members brought on to help manage the company’s growth. One recent suggestion has been to combine the legal and security functions of the company to ensure observance of privacy laws and the company’s own privacy policy. This sounds overly complicated to Amira, who wants departments to be able to use, collect, store, and dispose of customer data in ways that will best suit their needs. She does not want administrative oversight and complex structuring to get in the way of people doing innovative work.

Sadie has a similar outlook. The new Chief Information Officer (CIO) has proposed what Sadie believes is an unnecessarily long timetable for designing a new privacy program. She has assured him that NatGen will use the best possible equipment for electronic storage of customer and employee data. She simply needs a list of equipment and an estimate of its cost. But the CIO insists that many issues are necessary to consider before the company gets to that stage.

Regardless, Sadie and Amira insist on giving employees space to do their jobs. Both CEOs want to entrust the monitoring of employee policy compliance to low-level managers. Amira and Sadie believe these managers can adjust the company privacy policy according to what works best for their particular departments. NatGen’s CEOs know that flexible interpretations of the privacy policy in the name of promoting green energy would be highly unlikely to raise any concerns with their customer base, as long as the data is always used in course of normal business activities.

Perhaps what has been most perplexing to Sadie and Amira has been the CIO’s recommendation to institute a privacy compliance hotline. Sadie and Amira have relented on this point, but they hope to compromise by allowing employees to take turns handling reports of privacy policy violations. The implementation will be easy because the employees need no special preparation. They will simply have to document any concerns they hear.

Sadie and Amira are aware that it will be challenging to stay true to their principles and guard against corporate culture strangling creativity and employee morale. They hope that all senior staff will see the benefit of trying a unique approach.

What Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) principle should the company follow if they end up allowing departments to interpret the privacy policy differently?

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In privacy protection, what is a "covered entity"?

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What should a privacy professional keep in mind when selecting which metrics to collect?

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