
Castlebridge and Least Authority team up to reinvent Privacy Reviews
Castlebridge announces another exciting partnership in the Data Protection by Design space
It is that time of year again when companies write their end of year reviews, looking back at successes and getting all misty eyed about what the future will hold.
Not here at Castlebridge Towers. Here we celebrate the end of one year and look forward to the next by working through the pile of reading materials we’ve set aside to help sharpen our brains for the coming challenges. After all, recent developments mean that Privacy is the “Word of the Year” for 2013 and is being touted as a key source of competitive advantage for firms in 2014. Even the United Nations has gotten in on the act.
Recent EU legal actions suggest a seismic shift brewing with regard to the Governance of Personal, Sensitive, and the newly coined “Special” data that organisation hold. The shift will be towards more appropriate and legally enforceable governance of data. But that shift means that the internal “legislation” and controls that organisations apply will need to evolve. And rather quickly.
At the risk of annoying people, I personally believe that Privacy is just another component or characteristic of Quality in Information management. The societal standards and expectations of privacy are the expectations that organisations (and governments) are expected to meet or exceed in their processing of personal and other data. Data Protection and Privacy laws are simply the societal mechanism whereby those requirements are expressed, with a penalty (in theory) for breaching them. Quality information is a product of a well defined and well run Information Factory. The processes for ensuring that the information factory is well defined and well run are what we call Data Governance.
This is basically the theme of my chapter in the forthcoming IGI-Global publication Information Quality and Governance for Business Intelligence. The historic legacy silo paradigm that sees Privacy, Governance, Quality, and Technology management relating to Information as separate disciplines must begin to erode. And the dinosaur view that Data Protection compliance is the preserve of or role of the lawyers in an organisation must also begin to crumble in this new world.
Christmas Reading
It has been a tradition of mine for many years (starting in University when I had semesterised exams and I spent my Christmas holidays furiously trying to learn an entire semester of material that I’d barely turned up to hear) to devote some time over the Christmas Holidays to reading new or re-reading old books that inspire, educate, or inform. It is a practice I try to encourage in my team, my co-workers, and my network of Associates (to varying degrees of success). This year I thought I’d share with you some of the books I’m going to be reading.
2013 saw one of the pioneers of Information Quality finally decide to hang up his hat. Larry P. English was a friend, mentor, and teacher to me personally. While I didn’t always agree with him, I could never say he was wrong. Just approaching things from a different perspective. Larry introduced me to the works of Deming and Juran and was my gateway into the network of contacts I have today in the international Information Quality, Data Governance, and Information management worlds. Larry’s books are a bit like a puppy – not just for Christmas. I’ll probably skim through Information Quality Applied: Best Practices for Improving Business Information, Processes and Systems: Best Practices for Improving Business Processes, Systems, and Information again if I get a chance, just to remind myself of Larry’s thought leadership (albeit at times very dogmatic thought leadership).
Why no Privacy Books or Data Protection Books?
Short answer: those books are all going to have to be rewritten. We will need to return to some basic first principles of Quality Management thinking, putting the customer first and defining privacy from the perspective of the Data Subject and figuring out how to strike the right balances and achieve the right outcomes.
So I’m going back to some basic core principles books (with a bit of future perspective from Dr. Devlin).
What are you going to be doing to sharpen your brain for the Privacy and Governance challenges of 2014 and beyond?
Castlebridge announces another exciting partnership in the Data Protection by Design space
Castlebridge announces partnership with leading Data Governance technology provider, Collibra
The second edition of “Data Ethics” by Daragh O Brien and Katherine O’Keefe will be published by Kogan Page on the 3rd of June 2023. Coming 5 years after the...