Proposition of a framework for consumer information privacy protection

The growing use of digital technologies has provided businesses with various avenues of collecting data about consumers and potential consumers. Due to the discreet manner whereby information is collected, consumers are often oblivious that they are providing businesses with information such as IP addresses and the pages they view. Cookies and tracking devices can also provide personal information of consumers to businesses. Businesses do not comprehend their misuse of consumer data until they sustain a privacy breach, which could lead to financial and reputational damage to the business as well as a loss of consumer trust and loyalty. Businesses however have both a legal and moral onus to protect consumer's personal data in a dignified manner. The objective of this study is to propose a framework for consumer privacy protection strategy. Forrester's data security and privacy playbook provides the tools, information and analysis to help businesses protect sensitive data from cybercrime and privacy abuse by means of a framework that has a three-step process, Discover, Plan and Act. The framework is developed within Forrester's playbook. The justification for the proposition of this framework is to mitigate the detrimental consequences of a privacy breach and ensure that businesses no longer treat consumer privacy protection as an afterthought.