This is the fourth article in a multipart series.

Concerns about the sharing of data from digital activities and devices typically focus on consumer privacy. COVID-19 and the much discussed need for a public-health response that includes widespread, automated contact tracing has brought these issues into sharp relief.

The benefits of the ability to track those who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus are impossible to deny. But so are the risks of the collected data being misused or used for purposes that the data owner neither contemplated nor intended.

The sharing of enterprise data involves similar tradeoffs between privacy and value, and balancing them requires the same level of care and forethought. The exploding volume of machine data from the Internet of Things will be used to generate high-value insights, but confidential information about companies and, potentially, employees will be at risk of misuse. With the rise of remote working, employee monitoring is blurring the boundary between personal and enterprise data.

B2B companies need a plan for dealing with IoT and other enterprise data privacy. What can they learn from the B2C experience with consumer data as they consider their own tradeoffs between protecting proprietary information and capturing value from data sharing?