Why should Companies be Aware of the Right to Privacy as a Human Right

Traditionally, privacy rights only gave people the freedom from publicity or government monitoring. Then, some decades ago, regulatory bodies introduced a digital privacy right. The offline form of privacy extended to the online setting. 

Users were introduced to their privacy rights, which they can exercise on the internet. Even though the internet seems to be a public space, data privacy is still possible. Regardless, some companies do not allow customers to exercise their privacy rights to the fullest. This is the case because most of these companies do not regard the right to privacy as a human right. 

In recognition of the human privacy right, many countries have passed the privacy rights bill into law. It recently took place in America: Virginia, California, and Colorado. This law does not just grant internet access rights but the right to control how one’s data is collected, used, shared, stared, and even deleted. It is one thing to have a phone connected to the internet, and it is another thing to be able to regulate what happens to one’s data there. 

Reason Companies must Treat Privacy Rights as Human Rights

Online privacy right was not always a thing. Before it became the law, companies harvested customer data as much as possible. Some even used extraction tools to gain data, while some coerced customers into sharing their data without provisions for opting out of their services. The situation with privacy on the internet was that bad. 

• Individual Control

As technology advanced and cyber issues increased, there was the need for companies to give people the power to dictate what happens to their data. Since it is the customers’ data, why don’t businesses give them the liberty to exercise control over it?

Businesses must treat privacy rights as other existing human rights because customers are humans and must be treated as such. Humans are not machining those businesses can control just by giving them a few sets of commands. 

• Privacy Legislation

Companies worldwide must respect privacy rights just as much as they believe all humans have the right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and other aspects of human rights. The reason companies must do this is because of privacy legislation. Privacy rights have moved from mere decisions or human thoughts into law. In association with key decision-makers, legislators worldwide now place businesses under rules that make them accord necessary respect to customers.

With the existence of privacy laws, privacy rights are still somehow inconsistent. For instance, the CCPA (California Customer Privacy Act) still requires customers to opt out of a service. Indirectly, customers cannot prevent companies from collecting their data by default. 

• Penalties

Despite privacy laws’ inconsistencies, businesses must not disregard them. Instead, businesses must treat privacy rights as a human right to avoid the wrath of the law. 

Business owners must handle customer data and give customers the space to exercise their privacy rights at every data collection point. They must refrain from taking customer data without their consent. Failure to do this might cause the company to lose money due to answering lawsuits and paying legal fines.  

• Changes in Privacy Processes

Companies didn’t have to worry about hiring legal experts or investing in privacy policy software in the past. Now, they have to worry about all that. Businesses now have to check if their privacy policies state every necessary piece of information.

Similarly, companies didn’t have to think about hiring data protection experts. Contrary to this, every company that collects user data must hire these experts to advise them on data protection steps.  

Times are changing from using data silos to a centralized system of data storage. As these changes occur, companies must adhere to them as they are pointers toward treating privacy right as human rights.

Customers’ data privacy is not restricted to businesses to maintain. They must learn from governments, as they know a lot about human rights. Both large and small companies must be plain with customers about using their data or sharing it. Likewise, to help businesses handle customer privacy well, they must see privacy rights as a branch of general human rights.

One of our purposes at Zendata is to simplify privacy and law requirements to make them easy for your business to follow. Reach out to us today to show you how to treat customers right by letting them exercise their privacy right as they use your websites or mobile applications.