Organization legal and ethical privacy issues with recommendations

Privacy Issues in McDonald's:

As part of its commitment to its customers, McDonalds Corporation is very sensitive to privacy issues. While the company does not share, sell or reveal any personal information to third parties, it may share this information within the corporation, subsidiaries, franchises and affiliates. However, the use of shared personal information within McDonald's family is based on the corporation's privacy policy. Notably, companies that may be engaged by McDonald's to carry out certain functions like offering technical services, fulfilling orders and helping with promotions may gain access to personal information if necessary. McDonald's Corporation restricts those companies to use the personal information for conducting those functions and not for any other purpose. The company restricts the use of this information because of its sensitivity to privacy issues and the need for caution in any communications with its treasured customers.

Privacy Regulations at McDonalds:

With its rapid growth to international markets, McDonald's Corporation has developed a comprehensive privacy policy that enables the company to address legal and ethical issues. This comprehensive privacy policy is centered on various aspects as follows:

Type of Collected Information and its Use:

McDonald's Corporation only collects an individual's personal information like name, mailing address and email address when voluntarily provided by the individual. Such information is used to get feedback from the individual regarding the company's website and products ("McDonald's Privacy Policy," n.d.). In some cases, the collected personal information is used by the corporation to enlist its customers in one of the company's sweepstakes or contests. Therefore, the company only collects and uses personal information that is provided voluntarily by its customer. On the other hand, the individual is in control of any information he/she provides and can review, correct or delete this information by contacting the company.

Sharing of Information:

As previously mentioned, McDonald's Corporation uses the provided information within the McDonald's family and does not sell or transfer it to third parties. The company may sometime share customer data with other entities that provides it with technical, fulfillment and other services. In certain occasions, the company can use customer data to share marketing information regarding products and services provided by its business partners if permitted by the customer. The corporation reserves the right to use or reveal any necessary information to legal requests or law enforcement investigations on issues that concern public safety.

Ethical Considerations of Confidentiality and Data Protection:

Data protection concerns and ethical considerations of maintaining confidentiality at McDonalds emanate from the need and obligation to keep customer information secure and private from others. The main ethical and data protection considerations of maintaining confidentiality is ensuring trust between the company and its customers or service users. Due to the ethical concern of trust in maintain confidentiality, McDonald's treats information as confidential as possible. This is particularly in cases where the information may be beneficial to privacy of employees, customers, franchisees or competitors ("Standards of Business Conduct," 2008). The other ethical consideration in maintaining confidentiality and data protection at McDonald's is the potential harm the information may cause to the company if publicly revealed. To avoid such harm, the company has adopted measures that help its employees to take precautions against the public disclosure of such information. These measures include sending confidential information through means that are secure and safe.

Legal Concerns at McDonald's Corporation:

One of the major legal concerns at McDonald's Corporation is the need to ensure that confidential information is secure and safe from others as stipulated in the Privacy Act. As a public agency, the company is prohibited from disclosing personal information without permission from the individual. However, McDonald's can only share such information for various purposes such as administrative, law enforcement, statistical and archival reasons. To ensure that it complies with the requirements of this Act, McDonald's has established a comprehensive privacy policy that governs its business conduct. First, it only collects information provided voluntarily and uses such information for administrative purposes. The company shares such information with other entities that are providing certain administrative functions.

The second major legal concern at McDonald's regards the safety of its products to customers' health. This is largely because the company is a key player in the fast-food industry, which needs to produce foods with minimal potential of causing health problems or physical injuries to customers. Based on consumer protection laws, the company should not use deceptive means in promotion and marketing of its products and should also warn consumers on the danger of its products (Mello, Rimm & Studdert, 2003).