Article: Outsourcers are anxious to safeguard your privacy

The Charlotte Observer (registration required) has an article on foreign outsourcing and customer information. Not unrealistically, companies and their customers are concerned about privacy when sending customer data overseas for processing:

Charlotte Observer | 02/12/2005 | Outsourcers are anxious to safeguard your privacy:

"Foreign companies fear bad publicity could cut into their business

Ensuring the security of customer data and other sensitive information remains a top concern of U.S. companies increasingly sending call center and computer work to lower-wage nations.

And it's a matter of survival for the foreign firms providing outsourcing services.

'If you have even one minor breach that makes it into the press, it's over,' said Rick Rossow, IT policy director at the U.S.-India Business Council in Washington. 'It's not going to take a lot for companies to pull back.'

Foreign outsourcing already is a controversial trend, blamed for eroding America's middle class by sending information-technology work overseas. Critics say it also puts consumers at risk because other countries have inadequate security and legal protections. Consumers have little recourse, critics say, if they are harmed financially by unauthorized access to their accounts and personal information."