The Biggest Crisis

We hear the word “crisis” a lot these days. A phenomenon of our age is that issues are transformed into crises, and many crises are transformed into existential threats. Think about the way we looked at online harms and screen time for children. Just a year or two ago, the rage was the claim that… Read More

Why Privacy is Like Bubble Wrap

Today is Data Privacy Day, a great time to remember that we live our lives increasingly in visible, recorded ways, and that privacy is something that belongs to all of us and to each of us. Also, it’s a day when privacy professionals post jargon-filled memes that no one understands. “Did you hear the one… Read More

Data Strategy on a Tight Budget

Regular readers of our blog will be familiar with our frequent suggestion that you should deploy data review teams and use subject matter experts to come up with clever solutions to data-based problems. “That’s all well and good,” you might say, “for companies that have dedicated staff for working only on data problems or massive… Read More

Privacy Shield Is Gone. Now What?

For those of us who pay attention to and care about these kinds of things, the Court of Justice of the European Union has issued a ruling today stating that the FTC’s Privacy Shield framework governing the transfer of personal data from Europe to the United States is no longer valid. This ruling is very… Read More

A Quarantine Lesson – One Month In

I think we can all agree that March 2020 lasted approximately 11 years and that April lasted about 11 minutes.  Seriously, what happened to April?  Why did time seem to absolutely whiz by while just a few weeks earlier it felt like we were waking up on March 78th?  Perhaps it has something to do… Read More

Zoom Bombs

Zoom, the videoconferencing platform on everyone’s lips this month, has had an roller coaster of a first quarter.  As remote working became the norm for hundreds of millions, the company rapidly emerged as a favorite in the United States, where its simplicity and video quality made it stand out from competitors.  Its daily usage swelled… Read More

Two Examples of Valuable Data Partnerships

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about data partnerships because we believe in their potential as vehicles for growth, success, and innovation.  But sometimes it’s valuable to lay out particular versions of those partnerships to give you an idea of what data you can deploy and how it can be valuable.  Use this discussion… Read More

Protecting Your Data, Protecting Your Business

One of the biggest concerns we have when we talk to clients about how to create data partnerships is the security and protection of data.  We don’t mean cybersecurity and the literal safeguarding of information, though that’s undoubtedly essential too.  Instead, we’re talking about ensuring that datasets are used only as appropriate, are kept within… Read More

What it Means to “Control” Data

There is an unconventional data partnership structure based around controlling the data that others have about you. Remember, most businesses gather datasets from their operations. However, each record of those datasets is usually referencing one particular entity, like a person or a business or a product. There is an entire partnership structure around the entities… Read More

How to Pitch Data Partners

Jerry Seinfeld used to do a bit where he noted that the number one fear most people have is speaking in public, followed in second place by the fear of death.  “That means that, if given a choice of what to do at a funeral, most people would rather be in the casket than giving… Read More