Being an Eeyore About Data Privacy Week
But optimistic about making things better
It’s Data Privacy Week. Did you notice? I almost didn’t, this year. It’s been pretty quiet on the privacy evangelism front, even from US organizer NCSA (the National Cybersecurity Alliance). The same is true for the original European version of this event, Data Protection Day – which hasn’t undergone “event length inflation” and remains a single day.
I’ve been involved in the NCSA’s Data Privacy Day events in the past, so I’ve kept a weather eye on this series. Here was my commentary from the floor of the 2017 and 2018 DPD events in interviews with the lovely SiliconANGLE host Jeff Frick.
The 2017 event was held at (then-)Twitter’s HQ. I focused on the frequent “identity theft” seen in compromises of IoT devices such as connected cars, and on the need for a positive vision of privacy that enables selective sharing by individuals.
The 2018 event was held at LinkedIn’s HQ. (Boy, those were the days, when HQs were always buzzing with people.) I discussed the then-growing need to serve GDPR aims, identity’s role as a solution in this landscape, and the educational example of open banking efforts such as PSD2.
Not gonna lie — the lack of progress in privacy, consent, and user control has been discouraging. I recall that in 2018, the event organizers were carefully tracking the amount of press DPD received. Even by that “input metric,” things haven’t been improving.
But I do have hope about improvements. In compiling my four Consent Is Dead blog posts from last year into a white paper, I put a lot of thought into — as the paper’s subtitle puts it — how we can revive user-powered permissions.
As a result, the paper has a brand-new section in it offering practical steps for identity professionals to live up to the IDPro organization’s vision for serving as “vital and vibrant counterparts to privacy and information security.”
Be sure to check out the Consent Is Dead: How Can We Revive User-Powered Permissions? paper if you’re looking for actionable advice on promoting privacy innovation and user trust in your organization. Let me know what you think — it’s just a quick download away.
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