Our customers entrust us with their personal information and the confidentiality of their private communications. The way we handle this information is a vital part of our responsibility to customers and how we earn their trust.
Group Privacy Policy
Our Group-wide Privacy Policy covers the collection, storage and use of our customers' personal information. The policy must be implemented by every Vodafone local operating company and is overseen by our Content and Privacy Steering Group, a cross-functional body made up of senior management.
Privacy officers with day-to-day responsibility for compliance with the policy are required to be appointed in all local operating companies. All operating companies, except for our recent acquisition in India, have now appointed local privacy officers. Monthly privacy bulletins raise awareness among our employees about privacy issues relevant to Vodafone.
Vodafone also has a dedicated advisor within the Group Fraud, Risk and Security function to advise on and coordinate the assistance provided by our local Fraud, Risk and Security teams to law enforcement authorities.
Assisting law enforcement authorities
Telecommunications operators, including Vodafone, have traditionally been required to support law enforcement authorities by disclosing certain information on users and providing assistance with real time surveillance in the fight against serious crime and terrorism. These demands have increased in recent years with heightened concerns about terrorism. While this support and assistance plays an essential role in the protection of public safety and security, we must remain vigilant to ensure that this is done lawfully and does not unnecessarily interfere with the privacy of our customers.
We are developing a Group-wide policy on law enforcement assistance to ensure we strike the right balance between the potentially conflicting obligations of safeguarding privacy and assisting law enforcement. Our participation in a multi-stakeholder process to draft industry principles on freedom of expression and privacy for the ICT industry will feed into the development of our Group-wide policy on law enforcement assistance to be completed in 2008. Participants in the multi-stakeholder process include ICT companies, human rights NGOs, civil liberties groups, investors, academics and technology organisations.
Engaging in the debate
We engage with key stakeholders to seek their views on the steps Vodafone should take to protect our users' privacy. For example, we ran a focus group in February 2007 for experts to explore the appropriate balance between safeguarding privacy and assisting law enforcement authorities to tackle serious crime and terrorism. A panel of five privacy experts took part in our annual corporate responsibility conference in 2006. We also published essays on the subject of mobiles and privacy by three external opinion leaders as part of the Vodafone CR Dialogue on privacy to inform stakeholders and stimulate debate. The launch of this paper coincided with an event we hosted at the Royal Society of Arts in the UK in February 2008. This event included a panel of experts comprising the UK's Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, Gus Hosein, Privacy International, Anna Fielder, National Consumer Council and Vodafone’s Group Privacy Officer, Stephen Deadman.
