Case Study 4Relevant Facts Companies like Target are looking for new ways to entice customers to shop on their sites. They learned through market research that there are certain times in a person's life when they are more open to changing their purchasing habits. The most important of these times is when a woman gives birth to her first child, as products will be needed for the baby. By carefully examining the purchasing habits of twenty-five products, Target is able to determine how likely a woman is to be pregnant and when she will be pregnant. baby is expected. This gives them the first opportunity to market to the expectant mother instead of waiting for birth information that is available in public records like companies had to do before. They can then carefully schedule coupons and deals for key dates when the items might be needed. Target offers a privacy policy that states that information may be provided to other companies outside of the Target family. The question is whether or not Target provides its analytics data on when it thinks a woman is pregnant to other companies because it's not clearly stated in their policy. However, Target says everyone has the ability to opt out of marketing offers directed to them. Beyond that, there is no way to control what information is collected or know where it goes. Key Ethical Issues Target's collection and possible sale of private information could run afoul of basic privacy principles because people trust that they are not revealing confidential information. . Their personal information is expected to be protected and not just given to anyone willing to pay for it. At the same time, people expect Target not to buy influence...... middle of paper ......ent analysis methods, but sometimes choose the right thing to Doing so isn't the easiest thing. Final Solutions Overall, I think Target needs to take a two-pronged approach to collecting and managing personal information. First, they need to write a clear privacy policy that everyone will understand. If they want to sell information to third parties, people have the right to know who. Next, in this policy, Target must have a way to give people control of their private information, perhaps through a website. This would give shoppers the opportunity to update and correct the data, giving Target the most accurate description for marketing purposes. People don't really understand that their privacy is threatened until it's too late. Target could be an ethical leader in this area, which would likely increase its profits even more..