The Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that is dedicated to providing health and other humanitarian services to the general public. The undivided dedication to human services has prompted the organization adopt privacy policies that promote confidentiality of information both to the services beneficiaries as well as the employees dedication to the humanitarian services. The policy as a result needs to be implemented fully as a way of safeguarding the rights of volunteers, bloggers and websites’ visitors and at the same time maintain a confidential information record of all the data collected regarding the actual and potential organization’s beneficiaries.
The Red Cross privacy policy is established under the organization’s ethics rules and policies with a core purpose of safeguarding the personal information of all the people involved either directly or indirectly with the organization’s daily procedures and activities. The policy aims at protecting the personal information of computers used to login to the company’s personal website, volunteers who wish to be interviewed for the purpose of the organization’s humanitarian plans as well as the employees’ private data that may be jeopardized if exposed to malicious hands (Bernard, 2012). This way, the company is able to assure the employees and the public of a guaranteed confidentiality of their personal views, info and other crucial factors hence creating a harmonious working relationship between all the involved organization’s stakeholders.
The private policy being part of the Red Cross ethical beliefs and practices, affects both the internal and the external environments of the organization. Being an international humanitarian organization, The Red Cross depends on people from various sectors for financial and material assistance and these people may prefer a confidential relationship with the organization and hence, not unless they wish their personal information be available to the general public, such data has to be protected under the organization’s private policy. The policy also benefits the internal organization’s workers, social media contributors to the organization the personal data of all the people who have or intend to receive assistance from the organization. This mostly entails private interviews conducted to the general public either through the internet or face-to-face interview.
The policy has proved to be helpful in maintaining a positive relationship between The Red Cross and the public. This is because people have confidence when dealing with the organization as their personal information in terms of the credit cards, personal data and assets. The policy prohibits any employee from publicly using any of the organization’s confidential data for their personal gains. This way, both the public volunteers and the company assets are protected from misuse by malicious employees (Grant, 2012). This has aided in reducing any conflict of interest from any person intending to have a personal business with any organization as they are barred from using the Red Cross information for their personal gain. As a way of implementing the terms of the privacy policy, open form of communication is highly encouraged within the organization, a trend that has reduced possible complaints resulting from the violation of the organization’s private policy.
Organizations policy formulation is a very important aspect of execution of its activities. Policies govern how activities are carried out and bind all stakeholders into following acting responsibly and in manner that conforms to the expectations of the people who are directly affected by the organization. The Red Cross privacy policy seeks to protect the beneficiaries of its activities as well as the employees, volunteers and those who visit its website and other online sources of materials. This reduces cases of conflict related to misuse of personal information as well as the organization’s private information.
References
Bernard, V. (2012). International Review of the Red Cross: Humanitarian Debate: Law, policy, action. Cambridge: Cambridge University press.
Grant, W. (2001). Red Cross President Resigns Under Pressure From Board, The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
http://www.redcross.org/news-events
The Red Cross. (2012). IRC volume 94 issue 885 Cover and Back matter. International Review of the Red Cross. Cambridge: Cambridge University press.
