There is no single solution to managing privacy risk. In short, the typical company has to do several things in tandem to mitigate privacy and data protection risks and problems. The most important steps for an organization to take are the following:

Understand the customer. Make sure you understand what customers, employees and others expect you to do with their sensitive personal information.

Know your practices and understand the law. Make sure you conduct a deep dive into business practices that may cause privacy risks for the company.

Appoint a high level officer in charge of privacy management efforts. And, make the privacy initiative an enterprise-wide activity because it involves everyone.

Develop a good policy. Make sure that the policy can be adhered to. Don’t say things that you can’t deliver on.

Train people. The most serious privacy issues aren’t committed by cyber criminals. The more likely scenario for a breach is when a good employee doesn’t understand the company’s privacy policy and does something that is careless with sensitive personal information.

Monitor and enforce privacy breaches. When privacy risks are revealed, do your best to stop them.

Consider new enabling technologies. These can help a company to manage its commitment to privacy. For example, many companies are starting to use Internet crawlers to spot-check Web sites for cookies and Web beacons. Other tools are used to identify unauthorized or illegal downloads of sensitive personal information.

Make sure you have a redress program. This kind of program should allow customers and other stakeholders to ask you questions about the use, sharing, and retention of sensitive personal information. A good redress program is essential to good privacy.

Consider high quality trust seals like TRUSTe. While a privacy seal is not a guarantee for success, it is a very helpful sign for Web consumers.