Privacy and Information Security

Course details

Information about individuals is used by businesses to provide customers with a huge array of targeted goods and personalized services that consumers have come to expect. If it lands in the wrong hands, this same information can result in harm to the very individuals it was meant to serve. The protection of an individuals's personal information has business implications that extend beyond the privacy of any one individuals. Private information relative to certain businesses and industries is protected by various laws. For example the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) laws protect private medical information. Many states have enacted their own laws, and the federal government is regulated by the Privacy Act of 1974. Legislatures are increasingly responding to calls for greater protection of private information, and stories of improper disclosures of large volumes of private information receive prominent media attention. At present, there is no broad, general federal law protecting the privacy of customer information; most protections are aimed at particular types of information (such as medical or student records, for example) or particular types of businesses (such as medical providers, banks, and financial services businesses, for example). Customers and consumers expect their information to be protected and businesses that recognize the need to make privacy part of their business strategy, are ahead of the game. Many companies have gone to great lengths to protect information using technological advances. However, the ability of a business to protect private information it collects as part of its business is only as strong as its weakest link the human factor something that technology just can't overcome. This course is aimed at helping individuals who work with private information understand the ways that this information can be disclosed inadvertently. It will ensure that private information doesn't fall into the wrong hands. SkillSoft's Legal Compliance courses are developed and maintained with subject matter support provided by the Labor, Employment, and Employee Benefits Law Group of the law firm of Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green PA.

• match laws that govern the protection of specific types of information for individuals with the types of information they regulate and the industries/sectors most affected
• recognize examples of personal information that might be considered private