Privacy Of Information

Privacy obligations

Of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

(Samoa) Trust’s e-business efforts

Prepared by Richard Reddy

April 15, 2007

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 4

1. INTRODUCTION 5

2. B2C EFFORTS 6

2.1. ONLINE PRODUCTS 6

2.2. MEMBERSHIP & FINANCIAL INFORMATION COLLECTION 8

3. LEGAL AND ETHICAL OBLIGATIONS 10

3.1. WWW.LDSCATALOG.COM 10

3.2. MSR DEPARTMENT 12

4. CONCLUSION 14

REFERENCE 15

APPENDIX A: 16

APPENDIX B: 33

APPENDIX C: 35

Executive Summary

Privacy is a fundamental human right and a cornerstone of a democratic society. It lies at the foundation of the rule of law, the secret ballot, doctor-patient confidentiality, lawyer-client privilege, the notion of private property, and the value our society places on the autonomy of the individual.

This report deals the Privacy obligations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (CJCLDS) in its e-business efforts. Due to the vast amount of information collected by the CJCLDS, two departments are focused within this report. The Distribution services department which sells church related material online through the www.ldscatalog.com website and the Member & Statistical Record (MSR) department of the CJCLDS (Samoa) Trust; an entity of the CJCLDS organization in the South Pacific. The two departments are geographically separate and differ in the laws governing the privacy of information. The Distribution Services department based in Salt Lake City, Utah is governed by laws and regulations based on the Privacy Act of 1974. However the MSR department in Samoa is not subject to any privacy laws because there is no law on privacy of information.

Information gathered by the two departments are analysed and the privacy policy for each is assessed for its adequacy based on the legal and ethical framework of the country.

From the practices of policies and procedures, it is clearly seen that despite not having a legal framework within a country like Samoa, privacy of information can be maintained through an ethical framework. Organizations have a moral obligation in enforcing privacy of information regardless of what legal framework exists.

The CJCLDS is a typical example of an organization that maintains ethical obligations on the privacy of information despite not having a legal obligation to do so in its operations in Samoa.

1. Introduction

Privacy is a fundamental human right and a cornerstone of a democratic society. It lies at the foundation of the rule of law, the secret ballot, doctor-patient confidentiality, lawyer-client privilege, the notion of private property, and the value our society places on the autonomy of the individual.

With the development of technologies specific to information and communications, the ability to collect, record and “mine” personal information has grown exponentially; increasing the risk of intrusion of this very fundamental human right, a right to privacy.

This report discusses the obligations in regards to the privacy of information that Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints collects and maintains in relation to its B2C (Business to Consumer) e-business efforts.

This report will focus on two types of consumers, individuals wishing to buy church material and individuals who are members or wish to become members of the CJCLDS (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints). The latter group of consumers in this report is from Samoa and hence the CJCLDS (Samoa) Trust’s e-business efforts will be focused on this group. CJCLDS (Samoa) Trust is an entity of the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The e-business efforts will entail church related materials sold online by the Distribution Services department and church membership record, financial records information collected by the Member & Statistical Records (MSR) department in the CJCLDS (Samoa) Trust.

This report will describe the data/information being collected; who it is being collected from, and the reasons the data information is being collected. Discussion on the sensitive nature of this information and the obligations of the CJCLDS in regards to the privacy of the information collected within the legal and ethical framework of consumers in Samoa and around the world including the United States of America will also be addressed.

This report will also assess the adequacy of the CJCLDS Distribution Services website and the CJCLDS (Samoa) Trust’s MSR department’s business processes when discharging the obligations relating to the privacy of information collected.

Due to the massive amounts of information collected by the departments within the CJCLDS and its global presence, the report will focus only on only a small aspect of the CJCLDS operations; in this case the selling of church materials through the CJCLDS web site www.ldscatalog.com by the Distribution Services department and the membership information collected by the MSR department in Samoa.

However, the policies regarding the privacy of information are the same throughout all the entities of the CJCLDS (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints) around