New IBM Online Business Management Services help large companies keep abreast of potential privacy issues. The services are targeted especially at the financial services industry to ensure the security of customers' personal information and to adhere to privacy regulations.
IBM is offering new Online Business Management Services to help large companies keep abreast of potential privacy issues with their web sites. IBM is partnering with Watchfire for the new service, and uses Watchfire technology itself to monitor its more than 3 million web pages under the IBM brand worldwide. IBM chief privacy officer Harriet Pearson said that even a staff of 1,000 dedicated employees would not be able to do as thorough a job identifying violations of privacy rules, broken links, and even typographical errors.
IBM's Online Business Management Services are targeted at the financial services industry especially, which is under increasing pressure to ensure the security of customers' personal information and to adhere to privacy regulations. A survey of 242 financial services firms by IBM and Watchfire found serious gaps in web privacy efforts, such as failure to link to privacy policies on pages collecting personal information. Lapses in security and privacy online can seriously harm a company's brand perception and consumer trust, said Pearson.
