Someone to watch over me: The integration of privacy and corporate social responsibility

Firms’ relationships with key stakeholders are increasingly threatened by privacy concerns. Given the role of firm corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in strengthening and enhancing these relationships, this article examines the intersection between privacy issues and CSR activities, and creates a framework for assessing privacy-related activities as an element of broader CSR strategy. Specifically, the present research considers a firm versus customer focus in privacy-related activities, as well as privacy-related activities in the form of business practices versus goods and services. We identify four areas of overlap between CSR and privacy. We highlight the potential opportunities to better manage privacy-related issues of stakeholders, and integrate these concerns into the broader CSR agenda.