Invasion of Privacy in the Business World - Research Paper Example

In business, there are two approaches to privacy; consumer protection and free market. In free market, commercial organizations are allowed to make the major business decisions based on idea that the consumers will do business within the desired degree of privacy (Francis, 1991). If some organizations do not sufficiently maintain privacy of their operations, then they lose competitive advantage and ultimately lose the market share. This occurs when an organization fails to offer favorable privacy option to its clients or by failing to provide sufficient information of the privacy practices that it carries out.

Usually consumers are unable to claim the violation of privacy made by organizations. The consumer protection approach advocates more defined protection policies and heir enforcement by the government (Rosen, 2010). The reason is based on the idea that individuals do not have time or the knowledge to make decisive choices or they are not aware of alternatives available.In the United States privacy is not explicitly guaranteed by the Constitution. It has been implicitly mentioned in the 4th, 5th and 14th amendments of fundamental freedom right that ensures protection of citizen from government intrusion and interference.

In addition, Common Law appears to recognize some degree of protection of privacy of information.In 1970, the Fair Credit Reporting Act was passed to law, to ensure that customers were protected from information gathered from them by the private sector.