Module 04 Course Project – What Should I Do with this Data?

Your client unexpectedly stops by, carrying three storage boxes and five thumb drives. He says that he just ran across some customer files that he thought may be useful on the project. He takes the lid off one of the boxes. The first thing you see is a credit card number and address. He then offers to upload the data from his thumb drive to your computer. You respectfully decline, quickly replace the storage box cover, and ask him a series of questions. It turns out, he attended a marketing seminar recently and the presenter emphasized the importance of knowing your target market. He remembered that he had customer data sitting around not being used and he thought it could help paint a clearer picture of his target market. Below are the questions you asked and his responses:

Where has this information been stored until now? The boxes have been under the receptionist’s desk and the thumb drives just include data from our shared network drive.
What types of protections do you have on your computers? We use antivirus software, but that’s about it. We all trust each other so we don’t use passwords.
Did your clients give you permission to use their personal information for any other purpose than the purpose for which you initially collected it? No, but I figured since it’s in my possession, it’s mine to use.

To complete this assignment, do the following in a minimum of 3 double-spaced pages (not counting the References page):

Review the readings from this module and examine the legal and ethical concerns relating to the client’s practices of storing, managing, and using customer data.
Review the article Market Research and the Ethics of Big Data. Review page 7 of the article and discuss at least four aspects of the code the client would be violating by using his customer files in this manner.
Discuss the risk to the client of failing to consider legal and ethical issues when using consumer data or conducting marketing research.
Recommend at least four best practices for consumer data collection, storage, and use for the client to implement immediately.