The Responsibility of Protecting America’s Data

American’s have lots of data in cyber world and if one had access to all of the Internet searches, purchases, phone calls, household information, text, emails, and databases there would be a solid consumer profile on just about anyone. Large databases stored in corporations and government offices are attractive because of their wealth of information. Protecting data has emerged as a top initiative.

The problem is that this data is not useless and contains an abundance of sensitive financial and personal information. Data that is not important in isolation can be worth much more when combined with other large databases. Cross analysis can create all types of connections among behaviors and information.

Businesses have a responsibility to protect data against foreign governments, corporations, or individuals that seek to exploit this information for their own interests. Consumers expect their data to be protected from misuse and to be secure. This is even more so when they don’t know their data is being collected.

As information becomes stored in various locations across the globe and more transactions become electronic the distance between two entities no longer makes much difference. A person from across the globe could be stealing information and buying products just as easily as a person a few blocks away..

In recent history we have become aware of major hacking of millions of documents from the Office of Personnel Management. Hacking has been an ongoing event long time but we have only now become aware of the data that was moving out of this office. Truckloads of data hauled out under our noses.

By this point the information may been sold to thieves, hackers, governments, and other exploiters. No one knows for sure who would go through all this trouble and what their plans are for the information were. We do know that their strategy wasn’t designed to use millions of background checks for the best interest of society; at least not our society. Better protection of data will be important in the decades to come.

The Importance of Information Flow for Business Development

The flow of information helps entities integrate operations and services that lead to a more efficient system. It doesn’t matter if we are discussing a single company, a group of companies, or an entire hub of economic activity. The process of encouraging proper information transfer and collaborative problem solving is important for moving an organism to its highest state of existence. 

Imagine for a moment how well your body works if your feet didn’t communicate with your brain and your brain had no way of talking to the hands. You would have a difficult time walking, grabbing items, and otherwise functioning. You would eventually starve and pass away. The same occurs in companies and economic hubs when elements can’t communicate together. 

Glazer in his book Smart vs. Dumb Service Strategies: A Framework for Ebusiness Intensity discusses the importance of information flow in developing an entity for higher levels of performance (2001). He makes three distinctions where information integration can be beneficial: 

Downward flow: The flow of information between companies and customers (i.e. the in and outflow of information). 

Upward Flow: The flow of information between suppliers and the company (i.e. efficient operations by integration of networked operations). 

Internal Flow: The flow of information held internally by a company (i.e. collaboration of internal elements). 

Within any entity there is a need to ensure information to and from stakeholders is being used to improve the overall system.  That information needs to flow includes customer to company, company to supplier, and department to department.  Without that ability the system becomes dysfunctional and non-competitive. Improving the flow of information can make a difference in an organism’s ability to effectively adjust to its environment and succeed. 

How that improvement in information flow occurs depends on the type of organism but generally relates to meetings, positive relationships, egalitarian structure, information postings, open cultures, surveys, collaboration, and promotion. The organization must fully and functionally accept the inherent nature that new information should be encouraged, accepted, and capitalized on. 

Glazer, R. (2001). Smart vs. Dumb Service Strategies: A framework for EBusiness Intensity. New York, Armonk E-Service.