SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
Felicia has spent much of her adult life overseas, and has just recently returned to the U.S. to help her friend
Celeste open a jewelry store in California. Felicia, despite being excited at the prospect, has a number of
security concerns, and has only grudgingly accepted the need to hire other employees. In order to guard
against the loss of valuable merchandise, Felicia wants to carefully screen applicants. With their permission,
Felicia would like to run credit checks, administer polygraph tests, and scrutinize videos of interviews. She
intends to read applicants’ postings on social media, ask questions about drug addiction, and solicit character
references. Felicia believes that if potential employees are serious about becoming part of a dynamic new
business, they will readily agree to these requirements.
Felicia is also in favor of strict employee oversight. In addition to protecting the inventory, she wants to prevent
mistakes during transactions, which will require video monitoring. She also wants to regularly check the
company vehicle’s GPS for locations visited by employees. She also believes that employees who use their
own devices for work-related purposes should agree to a certain amount of supervision.
Given her high standards, Felicia is skeptical about the proposed location of the store. She has been told that
many types of background checks are not allowed under California law. Her friend Celeste thinks these worries
are unfounded, as long as applicants verbally agree to the checks and are offered access to the results. Nor
does Celeste share Felicia’s concern about state breach notification laws, which, she claims, would be costly to
implement even on a minor scale. Celeste believes that
even if the business grows a customer database of a few thousand, it’s unlikely that a state agency would
hassle an honest business if an accidental security incident were to occur.
In any case, Celeste feels that all they need is common sense – like remembering to tear up sensitive
documents before throwing them in the recycling bin. Felicia hopes that she’s right, and that all of her concerns
will be put to rest next month when their new business consultant (who is also a privacy professional) arrives
from North Carolina.
Regarding credit checks of potential employees, Celeste has a misconception regarding what?