Nuts & Bolts - Eye on Privacy : Will Privacy Efforts Survive Budget Cuts?

3. Reconsider how you handle the responsibility for privacy compliance. Do you have one person handling the workload? Or is there a dedicated staff? Even if your compliance department is only one person (and that person wears many hats), there may be a way to be more efficient.

Consider combining the efforts of a few people, not only to spread the responsibility but also to provide a more balanced approach. A small council rather than a single czar could set policy, provide training and oversee compliance requirements. A council should include people familiar with the marketing data and the marketing process, and someone who can get changes made quickly. The council leader should be at a level high enough to make decisions and to be held accountable if things go wrong. A council approach balances consumer choice and business needs better by involving people who understand the various components of the process. Rather than having a "compliance person" critiquing a process after it is built, you now have an opportunity to build compliance into the process.

Before I upset the chief privacy officers out there, let me say this approach probably works best if there is a CPO to make sure the council meets, policies get written and training is done. However, your output will be better when influenced by those who know the business best.

So, will privacy survive your budget cuts? You can't afford NOT to address privacy in any economy. Privacy and security have become the ticket to the game. Without them, you will not be in business for long. I hope these tips help as you move through your budget year. Privacy is not free, but there are ways to not only control the costs of compliance, but also improve the process along the way.

Gwenn Freeman is a privacy strategist for KnowledgeBase Marketing, a marketing solutions provider based in Richardson, Texas. She has addressed privacy issues for 20 years, including serving on the DMA's Ethics Policy Committee and the Consumer Advisory Council at the Federal Reserve Board. She can be reached at gwenn.freeman@kbm1.com.