Are you paranoid? Probably not.
We’ve all had that feeling, at one time or another, that “Big Brother” is watching us. We search for something online, then ads for it appear on our social media feeds. We purchase something off a website, and we start getting emails for all sorts of related products. Organizations collect our information – our data – for various reasons. But who really “owns” an individual’s data once it’s out there? What can individuals do when it comes to questions about personal data collection, and how can the Prolifics Innovation Center assist companies to best respond?
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
Several states, and even local governments, are considering or have already enacted privacy rights legislation allowing individuals to control a company’s use of their collected data. A major law going into effect January 1, 2020 is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). We’re not attorneys, so instead of explaining the law, we’ll let the California Attorney General’s CCPA fact sheet describe the basics:
The CCPA grants new rights to California consumers
- The right to know what personal information is collected, used, shared or sold, both as to the categories and specific pieces of personal information;
- The right to delete personal information held by businesses and by extension, a business’s service provider;
- The right to opt-out of sale of personal information. Consumers are able to direct a business that sells personal information to stop selling that information. Children under the age of 16 must provide opt in consent, with a parent or guardian consenting for children under 13.
- The right to non-discrimination in terms of price or service when a consumer exercises a privacy right under CCPA.
CCPA provides fines for both a company’s intentional and unintentional violations of the law, as well as providing consumers with the right to sue companies in certain cases.
The business challenges, and the Prolifics Innovation Center solutions.
Let’s use a simple example: Under CCPA, Jane Smith wants TheBiggCo to delete all her personal information. What are the company’s challenges and how can we assist?
UI: At the front end – so Jane can make her request in the first place – there must be a user interface (UI) that gives individuals the access to TheBiggCo and the ability to communicate their options as legislated. Using our expertise with low-code development platforms, we can work with you to create a customized UI solution. As another option, we’ve partnered with privacy software company OneTrust to generate the front-end experience.
Identification: A crucial issue, of course, is that TheBiggCo needs to know where all of Jane’s information is. It could be parsed and scattered across TheBiggCo data bases and shared with third-party partners. The Prolifics solution – unique to the industry – is Data Hawk. Data Hawk quickly scans all your data, not just file names or column headers, to find sensitive information and identify where data privacy is at risk. Data Hawk can do this in days, versus weeks for competing products (that don’t scan data as well to begin with).
Execution: Jane’s data must now be assembled and formatted into a catalog, where the requested action (like deletion) is carried out, logged for audit purposes, and has a confirmation response generated to send Jane. We work with providers like IBM and Talend to customize software that can execute this type of big data integration and management.
Whatever you need for your compliance process, whether UI, identification, and/or execution, the Prolifics Innovation Center will team with you to generate rapidly implemented, easily maintained solutions.
About the Prolifics Innovation Center
The Prolifics Innovation Center leverages our decades of experience to build next-generation solutions like those for privacy rights legislation compliance. We provide the leadership and vision that keep organizations competitive. Our experts work closely with our customers to incorporate feedback and tailor our solutions to real-world business needs. If you would like to learn more about privacy compliance solutions or become part of our Innovation Center, please email us at solutions@prolificsdev.wpengine.com.
About the Authors
Data Governance Practice Directo
Ron Davis is currently serving as the Data Governance Practice Director for Prolifics. Ron has 33 years of technology experience, with the most recent 8 years focused on Data Quality and Data Governance. This extensive knowledge and experience spans all disciplines of Data Governance and various tools used to implement Data Governance Solutions.
Ron’s deep experience and skill base uniquely enable him to engage with customers to drive business solutions and value that satisfy the most pressing needs of organizations across all major industries. One of Ron’s primary focuses over the past 2 years has been helping company develop comprehensive Data Governance Adoption strategies and tactical plans for implementing an enterprise data governance framework, data quality solutions that drive business value in the context of an enterprise data governance implementation. To ultimately drive positive organizational change and adopt the disciplines of effective data asset management.
Sr Consultant – Digital Experience
Jagan is a Senior Consultant in Prolifics’ Digital Integration practice. His consulting experience includes the complete ux spectrum, design thinking, human-centered design and development and getting-stuff-done experience.Jagan has worked with some of the biggest brands for the tech industry in retail, healthcare, banking and finance domains.