Kudler Fine Foods is an upscale food specialty store with three locations in the San Diego metropolitan area. The needs of the customers and overall satisfaction is the main mission that Kudler strives to uphold. Kudler Fine Foods has experienced significant growth and is now focused on expanding services, improving the efficiency of its operations and increasing the consumer purchase cycle as a means to increasing the loyalty and profitability of its consumers (Apollo Group Inc., 2013). Kudler must first review the legal, ethical, and security concerns as well as any financial concerns contained within the cost of this new Frequent Shoppers Program.
Legal Considerations In creating this new program, Kudler must first address any Legal issues with this new system. Protecting the customers’ privacy rights must first be researched and taken into consideration. In obtaining customer information that could be used to personalize marketing campaigns, recommendations and discounts, Kudler will need to understand that the customer must be balanced against the individual's need for privacy. In collecting the information, Kudler must fully disclose what information is collected and how it will be used by Kudler and possible third party vendors, so the customer's informed consent can be secured. Adhering to the Privacy Act of 1974, Kudler “shall not disclose any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person, or to another agency, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains” (Electronic Privacy Information Center, 2008). The stored information will include customers’ personal information along with purchase history. With the collection of consumer data, this raises privacy concerns of individual customers and possible data being compromised. Following specific guidelines, Kudler Fine Foods will provide customers the terms and conditions of the program or risk fines and legal action if consumer information was lost or stolen.
Ethical Considerations In addition to legal considerations, there are many ethical concerns that Kudler Fine Foods must include with the frequent shopper program. Customers will be informed that their information will be stored electronically. Specific employees within Kudler will have access to information given by customers in the frequent shopper program. Kudler Fine Foods will create a specified department and ensure that only those employees have the authority to access and monitor customer information. Some customers may take offense to being tracked by their purchase behavior and Kudler will need to answer any questions or concerns that customers’ may have with this new program. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which was amended by Congress in 1996 states that the individual shall obtain notice that their personal information is about to be obtained or disclosed (Myers, 2014). Kudler Fine Foods must follow the FCRA and the Privacy Act in accordance with state and federal laws to avoid infringement.
Security Considerations Along with Legal and Ethical concerns, Kudler Fine Foods is required to implement security measures to ensure customer confidential data is protected from unwanted individuals. By developing a plan for security policies, confidential information within this program will be encrypted and updated to maintain security as a top priority. Customers will only provide minimal information for purchase behavior patterns to help minimize the risk of identity theft. Only managers and specific employees will have access to individual customer loyalty program information to eliminate internal security threats. The loyalty points that customers will receive each time a purchase is made will be properly encrypted and secured within a