CPE By The Sea 2015/Handout: In World Where Privacy is a Moving Target, Accounting Professionals Need to Consider Social Media, Disclosures, Conflicts of Interest and Cloud Computing

Social media, the cloud, and social networking sites used by accounting professionals create numerous privacy issues. The rampant expansion of the use of cell phones, tablets, phablets, and other devices to access these sites increases the danger of improperly releasing private information. One of the major issues is that cell phones and related devices are generally not secure. Accounting professionals have a duty to protect their clients’ and their employees’ private and personal identifying information, but many fail to take into account how the information is stored or transmitted. Protection of sensitive personal identifying information in the online environment requires new strategies because it is the obligation of the accounting professional to properly protect information that is considered private, sensitive, privileged, or protected under the law.