When it comes to Americans' feelings about offshoring personal data, much depends on the type of
information and where it's being sent, according to a recent survey
by the Ponemon Institute.
"Anecdotally, people seem to have pretty mixed feelings. You
talk to one person and they say they hate the idea of sending their
personal information offshore; another person will say it doesn't
make a difference to them at all," says Larry Ponemon, who
conducted the survey of more than 1,200 Americans. "This research
is empirical validation that the public has mixed feelings."
When asked about an American company sending basic information such as name, address or
phone number to another country, only 42 percent of the survey's
respondents were opposed to the idea. But as the nature of the data
going offshore became more sensitive, so did respondents: 64
percent did not want employee records offshored; 69 percent were
opposed to credit card information leaving our shores; 74 percent
were against sending banking data abroad; and a whopping 83 percent
didn't want their health records leaving the country.
Where the information is going is as important as what it is. Canada, Ireland, India and Wales received the
highest overall trust rankings out of a total of 47 countries.
"I was surprised about India. I expected people to say it's a
developing economy and could be dangerous, especially with some
publicized incidents of data exposure and theft there," says
Ponemon. "Yet, we found degrees of touchiness. As the type of
personal information grows more intimate, the percentage of people
who want to keep it at home rises that most people felt pretty
comfortable with information being sent there. They have a track
record; they're an English-speaking culture that, for the most
part, seems dedicated to good security."
At the bottom of the trust index were the Philippines, Mexico,
Haiti and Russia. Political unrest both in the Philippines (a large
call centre location) and Haiti may have tarnished the image of
those countries, says Ponemon. Russia's well-known high piracy
rates and the recent publicity surrounding Mexico's border security
may have triggered negative feelings about data traveling to those
nations, Ponemon posits.
The bottom line for CIOs? Factor the cost of public concern into
your ROI when making a business case for offshoring. Although only
9 percent of respondents would pay more to ensure that their
personal information was not sent offshore, the impact of an actual
security breach could be costly.
"If you have a privacy meltdown, and, oh, by the way, it
happened in the Philippines, watch out. It can be a pretty large
cost," says Ponemon. "You'll need to do a lot more explaining up
front if you choose to send data to a country that people deem
dangerous. Factor trust into the equation."
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