Protecting Customer PrivacyProtecting Customer Privacy

Protecting customer privacy while using customer data to improve service and sales can get tricky. But that's just what Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.'s chief privacy officer, Ira Freidman, aims to do every day.

The 29-year MetLife veteran was once an insurance regulatory lawyer and a senior VP for the company. Now he spends his days relying on his knowledge of the law to educate employees on privacy regulations set forth by the government. He also depends on his employees to bring privacy issues to his attention, and on MetLife's IT department to implement systems that protect customer data.

"In terms of managing customer information internally and giving customers a greater ability to review privacy policies online and indicate their own preferences, my biggest partner is our IT associates," says Freidman. MetLife's implementation of a system based on software from DWL Inc. that centrally stores all customer data will help the insurance company manage the privacy concerns of its customers. MetLife technology professionals worked with DWL to add fields for MetLife employees to record customer preferences. For example, MetLife will store information about what data customers want them to share with partners, and what data they want kept confidential. The IT department has already added an online feature that allows customers to opt out so that MetLife won't share data at all with third parties as per a provision of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which governs how MetLife and other financial-services institutions can handle customer data.

While it may be difficult to communicate all of the policies set forth in the 300-page act to MetLife's 46,000-plus employees, Freidman is attempting to do just that. He set up an enterprisewide information-sharing audit. Freidman asked hundreds of managers to complete a questionnaire that details who they share information with, what information they share, and why. In addition, he's distributed educational information along with information on current privacy laws and MetLife's own regulations. Says Freidman, "We have almost 700 leaders who are being educated directly, and it's up to them to educate their reports."

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