It’s hard to tell fact from fiction in technology advertisements, says technology and security consultant Kevin McDonald. These irresponsible claims about a product’s compliance or security capabilities can have ethical and legal consequences.

…I can’t tell you how many times I have heard things like, “Since my vendor said that it would make me compliant, I assumed that it would.” Unfortunately, “I assumed” is not a defense and, in some cases, might actually be turned against the purchasing consumer or the VAR that didn’t complete their due diligence. I recently had a conversation with a vendor sales person about compliance and asked what kind of training his sales team had received. The response was eye-opening to say the least. It went something like this: “Training for what? That is the legal department’s problem.” When I raised several concerns about the product claims he was making, he said, “Not my issue. I won’t be the one in court….”

Read the whole column HERE