Records in the News - Privacy

There is one issue that is at the core of GRM Document Management's business. It's at the core of our customers' businesses and it's at the core of our customers' customers' concerns...privacy.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has apparently admitted he doesn't believe in privacy. The revelation came from a tweet from a New York Times tech blogger, Nick Bilton. He attributed the quote to an off the record chat with a Facebook employee.

If it's true, I find it a little ironic that Zuckerberg's apparent invasion of privacy came via a social networking site.

It's doubtful that many people will remove their Facebook accounts after reading this. According to Facebook statistics, the site has about 400 million active users, more than the population of the entire US. For millions of people, the site is a social and or business necessity.

There are steps everyone can make to protect their privacy, even on Facebook. As a general rule of thumb, don't post anything you wouldn't want your boss, your mother, your neighbor or your local prison convict to know. Go to your privacy settings and make absolutely everything private. This won't prevent Facebook from selling your hobbies, likes and dislikes, but it will limit the amount of information that's floating out in cyberspace.

Like Facebook, GRM Document Management is a repository of information. Unlike, Facebook, protecting our customers' privacy is our number one priority. Our customers' data is disguised, either by digital encryption or by bar coded boxes. Our centers have the industry's strictest security equipment and procedures. Our personnel are required to be background checked and to have random drug tests. Our customers' privacy is guaranteed.

Cintas and Google in the News

Ten countries have publicly criticized Google for not protecting its records, or more specifically, its users' records. Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and Britain have written a joint letter in response to Google rolling out its new social networking site called Buzz, which melded gmail information with the social networking site.

Google says they have made changes in response to the letter, and that they try "very hard to be upfront about the data we collect, and how we use it, as well as to build meaningful controls into our products."

"Of course we do not get everything 100 percent right -- that is why we acted so quickly on Buzz following the user feedback we received," a spokesman said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Cintas, a company known for a variety of business services, including document management, was selected yesterday by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council to become a participating organization of its global forum. The forum's goal is for ongoing development of PCI standards and work to evolve the PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) and other payment card data protection standards. The mission of the PCI Security Standards Council is to enhance payment account security by driving education and awareness of PCI security standards. For more information, please visit www.pcisecuritystandards.org.

New Browser Add-On Designed to Curb Google Data Collection

Records management is about protecting records. It's about knowing what should be available and to whom. Google is probably the world's largest repository of information, and not just the type you are looking for. They collect IP addresses, search history, browser type and more. Currently they are using the information for advertising purposes. Have you ever noticed that shortly after you look at a site, especially an eCommerce site, you see an ad for them? It's not coincidence. It's Google using your search history to better serve its customers, its advertisers.

A new project type, called GoogleSharing, is a Firefox add on that uses an anonymous proxy service that disguises your information by giving Google false information for applications which don't require log in.

Google's privacy FAQs state that it saves search engine data such as queries in order to improve the service and for the security of its systems.

In 2009, Google did introduce a dashboard that lets users have some control, but it doesn't show the user all of the information that might have been collected.