-
Ethical dilemma – Case 1
You are the HR Manager of a retail company. You have access to a vast amount of customer data, including sales performance, personal information, and health data. The marketing department requests access to this data to improve customer targeting. They believe it will significantly increase sales. However, sharing may infringe on customer’s privacy. How do you balance the need for business insights with protecting employee privacy?
-
11 Replies
-
I will ask the marketing department head about their specific requirements and according proceed further. In case needed, the people from the management team can be involved.
-
I don’t see anything wrong with that as long as the information is going to benefit the company and not used against the employee. it is the HR Manager’s duty to support or align his strategy to that of the company. That information is there with the HR to help him or her make informed decision.
-
Firstly there is a need to understand the business challenge Marketing is trying to solve by accessing the employee data
-
We can provide data summary instead of individual data and I think that would be more than enough to target customer segment.
-
Great @debjyotisaha, valid point shared. let’s listen to more perspectives! Can anyone share a live exposure to such case?
-
-
I believe the marketing team can function if it gets insights about the health data and summary of other personal details like (Age group, monthly income, purchasing pattern/power etc). That way an HR can keep a balance between keeping the information safe and still can help to meet the business objectives and marketing team can deign its strategies based on the data availability.
-
Hmm… thinking about it! thanks for sharing your views.
-
-
If it is customer data, where did it come from? Sales obviously. A backend team maintains the database, in this case the HR. Then where is the issue. If any filters need to be applied this can be discussed with the Head of Marketing
-
Protecting employee privacy or customer privacy??
-
HR can use AI to segment data from their end and create a summarised report by hiding personal information, such as email IDs, social security numbers, etc.
-
Thank you for your input, Poorvanshi. You’ve rightly pointed out a practical and balanced approach.
Using technology to segment and summarize data—while hiding or masking personal identifiers—is an effective way to support business needs without compromising on data privacy. It allows HR to enable data-driven decisions in a responsible and ethical manner, maintaining trust and compliance.
Your approach reflects how HR can act as a strategic partner, ensuring privacy is preserved while still aligning with organizational goals.
-
Log in to reply.