Why You Need a Data Audit Team (Like Yesterday)

Creating a Culture of Data Privacy & Protection (An Excerpt) It fascinates us how few data audit teams we run into, regardless of company size or data asset library depth. Everyone is accustomed to financial audits; the very same principles can be put to work for your data strategy to monitor intrinsic and extrinsic data… Read More

Hardcoding Trust: One Year of Sad Privacy Responses From Your Favorite AI

What Zork can teach us about Google, Amazon, and Apple’s Commitment to Data Privacy. Data Privacy gets a lot of lip service these days. We have Apple declaring that they bake privacy into every product, Google deciding to delete millions of Google+ accounts (there were millions?) because of a coding bug that potentially exposed private… Read More

We are All Baby Shark (in Data Tracking)

Data is amazing. You know that already. You’re told it every moment of every day. We are literally told or shown by ESPN, our kids report cards, our treadmills, our wristwatch, our Alexa, our Google, our Siri, our phones, and our apps that data is here and has the answer. In some cases this is… Read More

Super-Humans Nudging Us Through Surveillance Capitalism – a Bestseller Venn Diagram

This week I completed a book by Shoshana Zuboff that my brother, James, had pointed me toward. I had also recently completed two other books that have been on my list for quite some time. The timing of each of these books and their futurist warning, deep research, and outstanding storytelling caused a flurry of… Read More

Is “Creepy” A Subjective Measure?

Speaking last week on an industry panel, I advised the audience of digital marketing professionals to “Stop doing creepy things with your data and your customers’ data.” To which I was told by the moderator, “Well, ‘creepy’ is a little subjective, though, isn’t it?” “You know it when you see it,” I replied. About five… Read More

AI, Media, and Cookies – A Venn Drawing

We’ve always loved Venn diagrams. They have a simple way of illuminating potential connections, overlaps, and combinations. They also can be quite funny. Sometimes Venn diagrams show obvious relationships, but other times, they can be used to highlight an odd overlap from seemingly unrelated stories or concepts. This last week, three stories and articles came… Read More

Data Strategy & Privacy at The Yext Onward ’18 Conference in New York

Yext throws probably the most compelling conference in digital knowledge. Heck, it’s probably the best conference in New York this year. With headliners like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Dr. Hannah Fry, and David Blaine, there was some solid star power that captured the essence of the conference: Knowledge is Power. On day two, we had the opportunity… Read More

E22: How to Build Your Corporate Data Privacy Team (Podcast)

Step one: don’t delegate it to the intern in the IT department. Building a solid Privacy Team inside of your company can be challenging, particularly when no one understands why you are doing it. In this episode of “Are You DataSmart?”, the Ward brothers outline proven approaches to building a Data Privacy Team and how… Read More

E21: Will Changes to CaCPA Water Down the Privacy Law (Podcast)

The ballot initiative was pulled, the law was passed. But will the California Consumer Privacy Act (CaCPA) move forward to be one of the most significant steps in data privacy law or will the law be watered down through the revision process. This is a big test to see how California handles data privacy and… Read More

E20: Artificial Intelligence vs Data Minimization & GDPR (Podcast)

The opportunities for Artificial Intelligence to transform humanity are enormous. We are seriously excited. However, there are issues with amassing the amount of data necessary for these machine learning based solutions. To become “intelligent” (whether artificially or not) requires immense data and knowledge, and the ability to recall that knowledge. Data Minimization, as a concept,… Read More

E18: ICANN Loses First GDPR Court Ruling in Germany

In this episode of the “Are You DataSmart?” podcast, the Ward brothers discuss the first court ruling on GDPR that went against ICANN, the non-profit domains platform that powers the internet. What is so fascinating about this first decision is that it specifically puts “data minimization” on display. It isn’t a theory anymore! PODCAST TRANSCRIPT… Read More

E17: Carpenter Decision Builds Up Privacy from #SCOTUS

In this episode of “Are You DataSmart?” we examine the Supreme Court’s most important ruling on privacy in Carpenter v. United States. It is a major development in privacy law, laying the foundation for an interpretation of the Fourth Amendment that protects against generalized government surveillance by electronic means. Together with United States v. Jones, it brings… Read More

E16: GDPR Induces Amnesia – (🎧Podcast)

Episode 16 of the “Are You DataSmart” Podcast covers the major operational issues caused Article 17 of the GDPR, Right to erasure (‘right to be forgotten’). Deleting records causes amnesia-like symptoms for businesses and will afflict every business that receives a withdrawal of consent or a notice to erase data about an individual or data subject. Specifically: The… Read More

E14: The Three Pillars of GDPR (🎧PODCAST)

The three pillars of GDPR are transparency, security, and consistency. Regulators have stated they see transparency as the central point, but the other two are equally important. When a natural person asks your company for a Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR), how will you react? The Ward brothers explain what companies need to expect within… Read More