Collection of short articles on such topics as technology for blind employees and limiting employee on-line time.
Guru Watch
For the past 10 years, Ann Cavoukian, coauthor with Don Tapscott of Who Knows: Safeguarding Your Privacy in a Networked World (McGraw-Hill, 1997), has been assistant commissioner of the Information and Privacy Commission for the province of Ontario, Canada. Among other things, Cavoukian's commission ensures that the provincial and municipal governments of Ontario don't abuse the data entrusted to them by the public. In Who Knows, she argues that companies should uphold a customer's privacy not only because of a legal or moral obligation but because it makes good business sense. She recently spoke with Inc. Technology about how small companies can protect customer data.
On protecting customers' data:
Most privacy laws in North America apply only to governments and not to the private sector. That means companies must be responsible enough to create their own privacy codes. The most crucial elements of any code are that it clearly state that the company will inform customers of how their personal information could be used, and that it provide customers with a chance to revoke their consent when the information is used for other purposes. In other words, you may sell your customers' names and addresses only if you have informed consent. Once you have defined a policy, make sure you communicate it to your employees via E-mail or intranet and physically post it at cash registers or other open places.
On the benefits of a privacy code:
Businesspeople traditionally rail against the notion of privacy legislation, claiming that it impedes free enterprise. But that's not necessarily true. When Quebec recently extended its privacy laws to the private sector, businesses were not crippled, as many feared. In fact, privacy codes may actually help you gain customer trust and loyalty. Some companies have even found that privacy protection is a cost-reduction tool. Companies often have archaic information practices, and they collect a good deal of information from their customers that they just don't need. A company that begins to scrutinize its information holdings from a privacy perspective may discover that it can save valuable computer processing time and memory. And it might also find that its employees will be more efficient if it doesn't have to collect data that never gets used.
On the fallout from violating privacy:
In the next five years, we are going to see a much more militant group of consumers, who will demand to know how their personal information is used and what sorts of electronic security systems have been installed to protect that data. We are already beginning to see more consumer lawsuits. Consider the consumer in San Diego who sued Computer City. When the buyer paid for his original purchase, he saw the clerk typing his name and address into the computer. When he asked if his name was going to be added to a mailing list, the clerk replied: "No." The man then wrote on the back of his check that he would sue for a particular amount if Computer City violated the agreement not to place his name on any mailing list. When he received mailings from the company, he sued and ultimately won. The judge ruled that the check had been transformed into a contract that the company subsequently violated.
Gimme a Break
Hoping to cash in on all the hype surrounding repetitive stress injury (RSI), Vanity Software Publishing (Toronto, 800-643-2881) developed ErgoBreak for Office. This graphically pleasing program reminds you periodically to quit pounding on the keyboard and then leads you through 20 stretching exercises aimed at combatting RSI.
But while ErgoBreak claims to entertain, it does little more than take you through the motions--and boring motions at that. At preset intervals, one of five cartoon characters pops up under the words, "Watch me first." The guide then leads you through exercises designed to stretch out body parts that have ostensibly gone numb from repetitive actions, such as mouse maneuvering. One such exercise is the "wrist nod," wherein you're asked to clasp your hands behind your head and stick out your chest. If you're feeling really daring, you might try the peek-a-boo exercise, as I like to call it. This exercise involves covering your eyes with your hands for 20 seconds, and then uncovering them. Yes, that's it.
Despite the fact that I obsess over RSI as much as the next person, I think I'll stick to my regular coffee breaks to fight it. During these breaks, I get up from my chair (great for the legs). Then I put on my coat (this stretches the arms) and head outside (sunlight is great for soothing monitor-weary eyes). I proceed to walk to the local coffee shop (by now I'm into heavy aerobic exercise) and get a grande iced mocha (stirring the ice really loosens the wrist). By the time I return, I've done my part to fight RSI and gotten a little buzz (the entertaining part of the break). As cute as ErgoBreak's cartoon characters are, I'll take the $3.49 iced mocha break over the $47 ErgoBreak anytime. --Sarah Schafer
Plugged in to the Peter Principle
Want to get back at your IT people for all the frustration they've caused you? It's easy. Promote them.
According to Mark Brewer, management consultant for Fred Pryor Seminars Inc., in Shawnee Mission, Kans., an international provider of one-day business seminars, climbing the company ladder gives most IT managers a bad case of vertigo. Technical people, says Brewer, aren't risk-takers by nature. Put them in a management position and they're likely to become paralyzed with indecision. All their training has conditioned them to analyze problems and act only when they're certain of a solution. This accounts for the dreaded IT-department response, "No, we can't do that," when someone wants to try, say, a new E-mail package.
But before taking your IT personnel to task, you might evaluate their work environment. Small companies are particularly difficult places for IT folks, says Brewer. That's because of scenarios like these: The owner hands the IT department a long menu of functions he or she wants performed and then allocates a pathetically inadequate amount of money for the work. Or every person in the company brings in his or her own computer and software and expects the IT person to tie the entire mish-mash together. "MIS people are always on the losing side," says Brewer. Which might explain the higher-than-average recidivism rate among technical people, many of whom prefer to return to their previous jobs than struggle along in management.
Brewer sees thousands of despondent IT workers in the seminars he gives to teach management skills to technical people. In fact, he estimates 40% of them are there of their own volition, trying to find the strength to continue in their upwardly mobile careers. "They miss the good old days," he notes. --S.S.
Fax-Finding Mission
Looking to save money on long-distance faxing? You might want to try the Internet.
The fax-service provider FaxSav (800-828-7115), which is headquartered in Edison, N.J., claims that you can save up to 50% per fax by sending your international missives through its network. (There are also savings on domestic faxes, but they're not as great.) The software is free--you just download it from the company's Web site--and although prices depend on destination, faxes sent to the United States from overseas cost at most 15 cents a page.
FaxSav works from any E-mail program or Windows application (you can also use a regular fax machine if you have a FaxSav connector, which the company provides free with the service). For example, if you're working in Microsoft Word and want to send the document as a fax, you just click on the Print command as though you were printing the document, and then choose the FaxSav option. A little bar at the top of your page shows you the progress of the fax; if there's a connection problem or the number is busy, FaxSav will automatically retry the number.
