Opinion: How to protect customers’ private information
By John Krieger, Las Vegas Sun
Privacy laws are becoming more consumer-focused, and companies that collect personal information about consumers — and fail to disclose what they do with it — are beginning to find themselves in uncomfortable situations.
New regulations are aimed at protecting people’s privacy, and companies need to know their obligations, particularly if they have an Internet presence and are gathering personally identifiable information about their customers.
If a business collects personally identifiable information — defined in most states as someone’s first initial and last name and an account number, such as a credit card, bank account or driver’s license number — the company has an obligation to keep that information safe.