Google and 02 have hit the headlines this week as consumers grow more concerned over the protection of their private data online.

Data Protection Hits the Headlines

Technology news this week seems to have been dominated by Google's changes to their privacy policy. Google have been up front about the changes, and posted a page detailing the changes. They present the changes as making things simpler and clearer for customers. However, others see the changes as Google taking control away from users, and that the steps go too far with sharing personal information between Google services.

Whilst legally it does not appear Google have done anything wrong, the news clearly shows that privacy and data protection can be difficult to deal with, and that consumers are quick to react to changes or issues relating to their private data.

In other news, 02 appear to have made a more serious mistake with how they handle their customer data, with the news that they have been sending customer’s mobile phone numbers to every site they visit. O2 were quick to fix the issue when the news broke, however, they acknowledge the problem had been occurring since the 10th of January, meaning that for 15th days, customers were unwittingly giving up their mobile number to any website they visited.

In the same week that these data protection issues hit the headlines, there was also news that the EU are proposing the 'right to be forgotten' law, which proposes that all websites will have to provide a way for users to remove all traces of their data, should they chose to do so.

Data Protection and E-commerce

These news stories provide a reminder that all e-commerce companies need to be aware of data protection, and need to do all they can to ensure their customers data is kept safely, and complies with all laws surrounding data protection.

Even sites which do not store customer credit card details, are still storing potentially sensitive data about their customers. Laws differ dependant on country. In the UK, the Data Protection act covers laws on what data you can collect and how it should be stored.

Data breaches can and do happen, even the largest of sites are not impervious to attack, with the Amazon owned Zappos recently admitting to data breach affecting the whole of its 24 million customers.

Failing to ensure your customers data is protected, or collecting data unlawfully, can not only result in legal action against your company, but also will cause customers to look elsewhere, as they will not be willing to shop on e-commerce sites they cannot trust.