Kudler Fine Foods Frequent Shopper Program Essay

Service request kf-013 was submitted to create a requirements document for the proposed Frequent shopper program. The frequent shopper program is a new initiative by Kudler Fine Foods to increase revenue. The program is to track purchases of customers and accumulate points for gift items. This program will track purchase patterns to offer personalized savings to their customer, not only from them but also from their trading partners. There could be ethical, legal, and informational security issues. â€Å"Ethics refers to the principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviors† (Laudon 2012, P 124). It applies to business behavior as well. An ethical issues that could arise from the frequent shopper program, deals with privacy. What information do individuals consider private? What rights do they have to keep that their information private? What responsibility do companies have to keep customer information pr ivate? These are just a few questions that surround the frequent shopper program from Kudler Fine Foods. Shoppers need to have the option to participate or not to participate in the program. The data collected will be used to â€Å"benefit† the customer but at what risk? The customers information will be sent to partnering companies that the customer knows nothing about. Kudler food has the legal responsibility to ensure that the partnering companies do not misuse their customers information for malicious gains. To meet the ethical concerns that arise with this program Kudler Fine Foods must provide the customer with the facts of the program. They also must provide who are the partnering companies and what information they will receive, or full disclosure of the program. This is the only way the customer can make an informed desicion on the program. There are legal guidelines for privacy laws â€Å"based on a regime called Fair Information Pracitces (FIP)† (Laudon 2012, P 132). There are many federal privacy laws that affect personal data, but most of those laws do not take into consideration the technology we have today. Companies can be held liable for a breech of privacy for its customers, if the company did not take the proper steps to secure their private information. Data security is a big investment for most companies. Everyday companies store transactional data from people. Some data is simple, like name, gender, and address; other data is unique like a social security number or bank account number. If a company is storing sensitive data, encryption will reduce the ability for the data to be stolen. â€Å"Encryption is the conversion of data into a form, called, ciphertext,that cannot be easily understood by unauthorized people† (University of Minnesota, 2011). Kudler Fine Foods must review their current security and ensure that it is secure enough to maintain the data privacy of its customer. Kudler Fine Foods frequent shopper program can provide their customer many benefits through its partners without storinng to much personal data. They will haven a ethical and legal obligations to their customers about personal data being shared. Security of the data will play a vital role in the sucess of the program, if a breech of the data accures, so does a breech of trust. The frequent shopper program will increase revenues for Kudler Fine Foods with minimal costs and proper informational security. References Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2012). Management information systems: Managing the digital firm (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. University of Minnesota. (2011). Encrypting Stored Data. Retrieved from http://www.oit.umn.edu/security/topics/encrypting-data/index.htm