Selling privacy to the executive team

- Now that you have thought about how to tie your company's mission and values to privacy, you need to take the next step and it's a hard one, getting the executive team to buy in to the connection of privacy to the company's mission and values and then evangelizing the message to the rest of the organization. As we've discussed, the C-Suite often sees privacy as an issue to manage and not an opportunity. Maybe you've even been one of those leaders or maybe you've interacted with them. They tend to think the sole purpose of a privacy program is to make sure there is never a data breach.

So, how do you help busy executives see privacy as an offensive opportunity rather than a defensive play? You need to look at how privacy brings value to your company. At the end of the day, a business is about making money so the key question you need to answer is how a strategic approach to privacy is going to bring value to your company. The answer will be different for each company, but here are some key points to consider. First, building a strong privacy program can be a market differentiator. We've seen various companies in the tech space hit on privacy as a way to differentiate their brand.

Apple is an example of a company that has chosen to have its CEO speak out on this topic in a letter directly to its customers. Microsoft has spent a tremendous amount of resources to help fight against government access to their customers' data. The tech sector, which has traditionally been the most data heavy, is leading the way and showing that if you're going to use customer data to fuel your business, you're going to need to talk about privacy. Second, strong privacy practices lead to customer loyalty. To illustrate this point, I want to talk about the first time I bought something online with my credit card.

It was 2001 and I saw a beautiful necklace on eBay and I wanted it. I remember being nervous though to type in my credit card number on the site. I mean, what if a hacker on the other side of the world broke into eBay's system and got my information? I was also nervous because I could not see or touch the necklace I was buying. I had to trust that the seller was honest and had accurately described the necklace. Buying online is such a normal part of our experience today that very few of us still go through the thought process I just described, but how do we get over those fears and land in a place where we're comfortable sharing just about anything with companies online today? Well, the companies that have excelled in the age of internet 2.0 took steps to build our trust.

They posted privacy policies and talk to us about how they would use our data and then, and this is the important part, they stuck to what they've said. And if they strayed off the path every now and then, they listen to their customers' feedback and reset their course. Third, a strong approach to privacy helps attract talent. I'll bet that one surprised you. Well, here's the thing. People like to work at companies they like and most people like companies that don't sell their data to the highest bidder and restrict employees' access to customer information. People want to be customers of companies that respect their privacy and they want to work at companies that do the same.

Once you've made the connection for your executive team on how privacy ties in to your corporate values and why it's key to the bottom line of your company, you need to go to your executives and ask for their support in evangelizing the message.