Regarding giving employees access to a file containing personal data, which approach raises confidentiality concerns?

Regarding giving employees access to a file containing personal data, which approach raises confidentiality concerns?

• A. None, the value of improved communication outweighs issues
• B. Many employees may object to their social security numbers and birthdays being shared with others; the company should withhold both of these
• C. Releasing of any of this information is a violation of employees' privacy
• D. The company should publish all personal data to improve communication

Answer: (B)

Protecting personal data through data minimization and need-to-know access is the key idea. Social Security numbers and birthdates are highly sensitive identifiers; sharing them broadly within a file accessible to many employees increases the risk of misuse or a data breach and is usually unnecessary for routine operations. The best approach is to withhold or redact these fields and limit access to those who truly need them for legitimate tasks. This reduces confidentiality concerns while still enabling the rest of the information to be used for communication and administration. Other options either ignore the privacy risk, suggest broad exposure of data, or assume any release is a privacy violation, which doesn’t balance practical use with protection as effectively as limiting access to sensitive data.

Protecting personal data through data minimization and need-to-know access is the key idea. Social Security numbers and birthdates are highly sensitive identifiers; sharing them broadly within a file accessible to many employees increases the risk of misuse or a data breach and is usually unnecessary for routine operations. The best approach is to withhold or redact these fields and limit access to those who truly need them for legitimate tasks. This reduces confidentiality concerns while still enabling the rest of the information to be used for communication and administration. Other options either ignore the privacy risk, suggest broad exposure of data, or assume any release is a privacy violation, which doesn’t balance practical use with protection as effectively as limiting access to sensitive data.