Protecting one’s privacy online and in person is a daunting task, especially for the high profile and high net worth family. Without a family office taking specific measures to ensure a family’s privacy is protected, families are at a grave risk for Internet security breaches, data leaks, and personal safety violations. These events can be devastating to a family’s reputation and strip them of their privacy. Citibank’s newly released white paper, authored by director of Citi Private Bank’s Global Family Office Group Edward Marshall, explores the unique privacy needs of wealthy families in the age of technology, and how family offices can identify, manage, and mitigate those dangers as part of an effective risk management plan. They recommend this three-step plan to start:
1. Conduct a privacy audit. Family offices should conduct a risk assessment by mapping every person, asset, and activity that is connected to the family. This identifies private information at risk for going public, and the means through which it could happen. This could also entail auditing the children of the high profile individual, who are more likely to use social media and inadvertently expose sensitive or revealing information.
2. Next, family offices should assess and evaluate the likelihood of a privacy breach. It is important to note that likelihood will fluctuate depending on a family’s activity, status, professional and personal relationships, etc. Family offices should consider the proximity of a threat, the family’s track record or criminal history, if any, and what the societal reaction would be to the information leaked.
3. Once the audit and assessment are complete, the family office must act on their findings.
Many privacy measures begin with being safer online, like securing old social media accounts, not using public Wi-Fi to make online purchases, and using different usernames and passwords for online accounts. The paper also discusses more involved steps families can take for special occasions, property transactions and renovation, commercial deals, and dealing with personal adversaries, such as non-disclosure agreements and even no-fly zones and anti-drone measures.
As Marshall states, “Everyone has something they would like to remain private and no one should be made to feel self-conscious about it. While families might not have something to hide now, they might in the future. Personal privacy planning is the only way to protect against such problems.” We couldn’t agree more. It is essential that high profile and high network families utilize their family office to the full extent to avoid a privacy breach catastrophe.
You can read the Citibank white paper, “Protecting the privacy of the world’s wealthiest families” here.
Related reading: Frank Rodman on Reputation Protection for High Net Worth Families
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