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ACCA Applied Knowledge · Business and Technology · The impact of advances in technology

A supermarket chain uses data from its loyalty cards to identify which customers are likely to stop shopping with it in the next three months. Which of the following is the main ethical or legal concern it should address when doing so?

The main concern is that personal loyalty-card data must be collected and used in line with data protection principles, including a lawful purpose, transparency and appropriate consent. The storage format and which department sees the results are not the central ethical or legal issues.

  1. AEnsuring personal data is collected and used in line with data protection principles, such as a lawful purpose and appropriate consentCorrect
  2. BEnsuring the data is stored in a spreadsheet rather than a database
  3. CEnsuring that only the finance department can see the results of any analysis

Explanation

Customer-level analysis uses personal data, so the company must respect data protection requirements such as lawful basis, transparency, purpose limitation and security. The storage format is a technical choice, not an ethical concern. Restricting results to finance is not required and would not address privacy.

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