To gain an insight into what businesses should be considering in terms of data privacy and to help firms to keep one step ahead of the regulatory curve, Digital Journal caught up with Jasen Meece, who is the CEO of Cloudentity. Meece has over twenty years of IT leadership experience. He has helped to develop a Privacy Ledger.
According to Meece, Data Privacy Day, which is marked at the end of January each year, provides an opportunity for companies to consider their use of data and how they can meet the expectations of consumers and the demands of governments.
According to Meece: “Data Privacy Day is an ideal time to build awareness and start an open dialogue about how individuals’ data is being leveraged by companies. It’s important to put the power of data back into consumers’ hands so they can decide how their data is being used and shared.”
With a nod to recent legislation, Meece states: “After the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) passed in November 2020, many other states and countries may follow suit in implementing data and privacy laws to give consumers control of their personal data. However, adhering to privacy standards can be challenging for companies, especially as applications become more complex with the addition of distributed services, APIs, and serverless resources all collecting and passing user data across environments.”
Taking the API issue, Meece continues: “When it comes to managing consumer identity, API Protection is a key leg of the identity stool, dictating how the app handles user data, identity governance and who has access to private data. Companies need to ensure that they request customer consent to access or use their private information required to deliver their services. Every user consent action and the contextual information needed to establish some form of identity needs to be captured to prove compliance with legislation and to respect the data privacy of their customers.”
Meece concludes by saying that by adopting ‘progressive consent’, this “Enables consumers to understand exactly why they consented, what they consented to, when they consented to it, and what is collected. Thereby empowering the consumer to take control of their data privacy. This approach builds trust and loyalty with the brand while ensuring companies remain compliant with the latest data privacy legislation.”
