January 28 is Data Privacy Day (DPD)! I know, you’re so excited that you’ve got a party planned to get your executives, Marketing and Sales personnel to spend all day reviewing and revising your Privacy Policy (especially now that Privacy Shield is invalid).

The general focus of DPD is to inform consumers about the need to maintain the privacy of their data and to assist them in this quest. For corporations, their focus on privacy entails the need for companies to not only uphold privacy practices but also data security practices.

Let’s investigate what privacy means to both consumers and corporations a bit further below.

Privacy for Consumers and Organizations

Have you ever used a random story generator? Along with related poetry, lyric and song generators, they are lots of fun and can provide tons of laughter.

What isn’t fun is when companies use the same kind of idea to protect their data. The ideas and input might be good, but when organizations randomize their policies and practices, regulations, engineering, DevOps, marketing, customer service operations instead of aligning them with the disparate privacy and security needs, the result is that user data is not protected with a 360-degree view of where that data resides. The end product is something that works for the moment but can actually result in monetary fines and lack of customer trust down the road.

For individuals, data privacy controls are fairly limited. Read the Privacy Policy, click “I Agree,” check the app settings and repeat annually. For organizations, it’s a different story. Keeping the data of an untold number of people requires constant maintenance. Is it obfuscated if not encrypted? Are there any plans to move the data? Who all in your company—Devs, Engineering, CS, HR, Marketing, Finance—has access to the data? (Read more...)